LONDON, April 5 (UPI) — Emilia Clarke is weighing in on the controversial sexual politics of Game of Thrones.
The 29-year-old English actress discussed the disparity between male and female nudity in the May issue of Glamour magazine. Clarke and other actresses are often shown nude on the HBO series, while their male counterparts, including former star Jason Momoa, remain covered.
“I saw [Jason’s] member, but it was covered in a pink fluffy sock,” Clarke said of the actor, who played her onscreen husband, Khal Drogo. “Showing it would make people feel bad. It’s too fabulous.”
“No, I don’t know why [the disparity exists],” she said more seriously. “But I’d like to bring your memory back to Mr. Michiel Huisman and I copulating for the first time, which began with me saying, ‘Take off your clothes,’ and then you got to see his perfect bottom.”
Clarke, who portrays Daenerys Targaryen, aka Khaleesi, playfully said she’d love to see “all the pretty boys” return and “take their trousers down” if she were writing fan fiction. The actress recently defended Game of Thrones from critics who claim the show is sexist.
“There are woman who are depicted as sexual tools, women who have zero rights, women who are queens but only to a man, and then there are women who are literally unstoppable and as powerful as you can possibly imagine,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
“It pains me to hear people taking Thrones out of context with anti-feminist spin,” she said. “[The series] shows the range that happens to women, and ultimately shows women are not only equal, but have a lot of strength.”
Game of Thrones is based on the A Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R.R. Martin. Daenerys’ rape by Khal Drogo in Season 1 is one example critics cite when complaining of the show’s treatment of women, but Clarke told Glamour her character managed to come out empowered.
“Ask George R.R. Martin why he did that, ’cause that’s on him. But I thought the consensual sex she has thereafter was genius,” she said of Dany later taking charge with Khal Drogo. “She is physically saying, ‘You can’t rape me again. I’m going to be in control and show you something you’ve never seen before.'”
Game of Thrones Season 6 will premiere April 24.
