Game of Thrones actress Carice van Houten has said she’s now less comfortable with the on-screen nudity in the show than she was when it first aired.

The star, who portrayed Melisandre in the hit HBO series, appeared naked at points much like her co-star Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) did. Now that the show has concluded, the Dutch actress has reflected on the show’s excessive depiction of nudity, questioning whether it was necessary.

Speaking to Deadline, she said that acting in the nude “wasn’t my favourite thing in the world at all.


“In [her breakthrough film] Black Book, I experienced nudity on set. The Dutch are quite open-minded, we’re a bit easier with that. But it’s never comfortable being the only one undressed on set.

“It was before I had a child. I would be more uncomfortable now. The times have changed in many ways. Back then, it was all a little overwhelming. No-one forced me into anything, but in hindsight I might have been a little more cautious with it.”

Van Houten was also asked whether she thought the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements impacted the decisions taken by Game of Thrones showrunners to reduce the amount of female nudity in later seasons.

“Yes,” she replied. “It also showed that you don’t need it.”


Clarke has also addressed the nudity in the series, citing it as the reason why she turned down the lead role of Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades Of Grey films.

She admitted that it was because of the amount of nudity in the films and fans’ continued obsession with her nude scenes as Dany in the earlier seasons of Game of Thrones.

“The last time that I was naked on camera was a long time ago, and yet it is the only question that I ever get asked because I am a woman,” she told Entertainment Weekly.

“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.”

In other news, George R.R. Martin has spoken about how the internet exacerbates negative criticism of art.

The Game of Thrones author, who served as a creative consultant for HBO’s hit TV adaptation of his book series, said that the internet is a different beast when it comes to fans airing their views.

“The internet is toxic in a way that the old fanzine culture and fandoms – comic fans, science fiction fans in those days – was not,” Martin told the podcast Maltin on Movies in reference to the show’s divisive ending.