Emilia Clarke Turned Down ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Because Of Nudity

Emilia Clarke turned down the lead role in Fifty Shades of Grey for a reason that might surprise Game of Thrones fans.

During an interview for the July, 2015, issue of Marie Claire UK, Emilia Clarke revealed that she’s a big fan of Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson. Emilia was presented with the opportunity to star as Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades, but the racy film’s numerous nude scenes turned her off from the role.

Emilia Clarke’s Game of Thrones character, Daenerys Targaryen, strips down quite a bit on the HBO show, so Emilia is used to working in the buff. However, Emilia doesn’t want every movie or TV offer she gets to require nude scenes.

“I really wanted to work with Sam Taylor-Johnson because she’s f**king amazing,” the Terminator Genisys star said. “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.”

It’s hard to blame Emilia Clarke for wanting to avoid roles that require nude scenes — she’s probably getting extremely tired of talking about getting naked on Game of Thrones since the topic of her bare body seems to come up in almost every interview she does. During a 2011 interview with Vulture, she talked about how she felt before she stripped down for the first time, and she explained why she believes that her Game of Thrones nude scenes aren’t gratuitous.

“It’s not what I was looking forward to doing and it’s not something I was excited about filming. It was definitely tricky. And hard, as a young actress filming an HBO series — it’s daunting enough as it is without having that thrown in. But it’s integral for the character. It’s integral for her growth and I think it’s an important thing to show. I don’t think you could have done Dany justice without showing that.”

It’s possible that Emilia Clarke also turned down Fifty Shades of Grey because she didn’t want to sign on for another project that her family members can’t watch. According to Access Hollywood, Emilia told talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that she failed to warn her uncle about her Game of Thrones nude scenes, and he was shocked after checking out the HBO series.

“He was kind of alarmed, I think, when he saw it… It was last Christmas. He sort of looked me dead in the eye, and was like ‘Emilia, you didn’t tell me! You didn’t tell me that you’d be naked for that long.'”

Emilia has another horrible reason for wanting to avoid nude scenes — cruel internet trolls like to bash her body.

“I remember when everything first kicked off, I Googled myself,” Clarke told Marie Claire. “You just do, it’s instinct. But never again. It just takes that one person who says, ‘She’s a fat b***h,’ and you’re like: ‘I’m a fat b***h!'”

Emilia isn’t the only star who turned down Fifty Shades of Grey. As the Inquisitr previously reported, Clint Eastwood’s son, Scott Eastwood, decided to pass on the role of Christian Grey because he also wasn’t comfortable doing the nude scenes that the movie called for.

Do you think Emilia Clarke would have made an amazing Anastasia Steele, or are you glad that she passed on the part?

[Image credit: Valerie Macon/Getty]