Emilia Clarke revealed her character’s ‘mildly lesbian’ scene during the early seasons of Game of Thrones was one of the most ‘awkward’ to film – for a pretty surprising reason.
The first seasons of the hit HBO series were filmed long before the days where intimacy coordinators were present on set which, for a show commonly nicknamed ‘t*ts and dragons’, would later become quite a big deal.
Clarke – who was only 23 and fresh out of drama school when she was cast in the role – would later admit the amount of nudity involved with her character Daenerys Targaryen was ‘terrifying’ and would reportedly go on to have a ‘nudity clause’ written into her contract for later seasons.
Actress Emilia Clarke had to film various nude scenes during the early days of Game of Thrones (Andrew Matthews – Pool/Getty Images)
However, when it came to choosing the ‘most awkward’ scene to film from the earlier seasons, the actress had a pretty surprising response.
Speaking to Digital Spy about the role, Clarke said the intimate moment between Daenerys and her handmaiden Doreah was one of the more difficult ones for her.
“Funnily enough the most awkward scene for me to film was the mildly lesbian scene with Roxanne [McKee],” she explained.
For those who haven’t watched the earlier seasons of GoT in a while, Doreah was a close ally to Dany during the early days of her marriage to Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa) and even instructed the young Khaleesi in the art of seduction and pleasure. With the pair sharing a moment, which ended up being pretty intimate.
However the ‘mildly lesbian’ moment with Doreah actress Roxanne McKee would be the most ‘awkward’ for her (HBO)
Explaining why this comparatively tame scene was awkward for her, Clarke noted that it was all down to how she believed her character would’ve been feeling in the moment.
“That was the most tricky I found. I don’t know why particularly, I think it because Dany found it tricky,” she explained.
“Obviously with the much stronger scenes Dany had to go into a different mindset to try and escape, so I did as well whereas with the handmaiden scene it was more kind of, tricky.”
While the Mother of Dragons would only have male love interests throughout the show, this wasn’t the only sexually charged moment she shared with another female character, with Dany later enjoying a briefly flirtatious exchange with openly LGBTQ+ character Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan) in season six.
However, the actress would arguably go on to have an even more awkward moment on set later on in the show, with her brother being on set during the sex scene with Jon Snow actor Kit Harrington.
“My brother was in the camera department and he was on set that day,” she explained at a previous Superhero Comic Con in Texas.
“It was literally like, ‘Mate! You’ve got to get him out of here. He’s not allowed to be here!'”