Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones over all eight seasons, would rather be remembered with her clothes on.
Clarke was offered the lead role in 2015's Fifty Shades of Grey, an adaptation of the bestselling BDSM romance novels by E.L. James, but chose to turn it down. She was asked about that decision in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, and her response had to do with the film's subject matter rather than the people involved.
"Well, Sam [Taylor-Johnson, the director of Fifty Shades] is a magician," Clarke said. "I love her, and I thought her vision was beautiful. But the last time that I was naked on camera on [Game of Thrones] was a long time ago, and yet it is the only question that I ever get asked because I am a woman. And it's annoying as hell and I'm sick and tired of it because I did it for the character -- I didn't do it so some guy could check out my tits, for God's sake."
Daenerys appeared naked because her clothes had been burned off in her husband's funeral pyre, which she walked into and emerged unscathed with three hatchling dragons: a scene with no sexual undertones, unlike the nudity in Fifty Shades. Clarke went on to explain, "I did a minimal amount and I'm pigeonholed for life, so me saying yes to that, where the entire thing is about sensuality and sex and being naked and all of that stuff, I was just like, 'No way am I going to voluntarily walk into that situation and then never be able to look someone in the eye and be like, 'No, you can't keep asking me this question.'"
Game of Thrones stars Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark and Kit Harington as Jon Snow.