Emilia Clarke Turned Down ‘Fifty Shades’ Due To ‘Huge Amount Of Nudity’

Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen on HBO’s Game of Thrones, turned down the coveted role of Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie because of the amount of nudity involved.

Emilia Clarke On ‘Fifty Shades’

Clarke was among the many young actresses considered for the role of Anastasia, which eventually went to Dakota Johnson. One of the main draws for the part, for Clarke, was working with Nowhere Boy helmer Sam Taylor-Johnson. But, not even the critically acclaimed director could get Clarke past the film’s many nude scenes.

“I really wanted to work with Sam Taylor-Johnson because she’s f–king amazing,” Clarke told Marie Claire UK. “But there is a huge amount of nudity in the film. I’ll never say, ‘I’m never doing nudity,’ because I’ve already done it, but I thought I might get stuck in a pigeonhole that I would have struggled to get out of.”

On Game of Thrones, as the Mother of Dragons, Clarke has had to get naked numerous times on screen. While Clarke is okay with that being part of her role on the HBO drama, she doesn’t want nudity to be a running theme in her career. When asked about her decision to walk away from Fifty Shades earlier this year, Clarke had expressed the same sentiments as she did while talking to Marie Claire.

“I’d done nudity before and was concerned with being labeled for doing it again,” she succinctly told The Hollywood Reporter.

In addition to Game of Thrones, Clarke is starring in feature film Terminator: Genisys, which is coming out this year, and Me Before You with Harry Potter‘s Matthew Lewis and Sam Clafin for 2016.