The Game Of Thrones Episode That Led To A Cringey Moment With Emilia Clarke's Parents
"Game of Thrones" is nothing if not mature viewing. With storylines inspired by some of the most revolting and horrific events in medieval history (via BBC), the series is rife with disturbing scenes of intense violence. Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen across all eight seasons of the HBO drama, knows that better than anyone.
Though Daenerys' fierce temperament is heavily formed by the traumatic events she herself experiences, the Queen of Dragons still hands out hearty punishment and vicious retribution across the bulk of "Game of Thrones." From burning men alive with her dragons to crucifying her enemies, Daenerys shows time and time again that she is a force to be reckoned with.
However, it wasn't the violence that her character was responsible for that unnerved Clarke half so much as her sexuality. Though Clarke has been vocal about her discomfort filming those kinds of scenes in the past, there was one that really made her uncomfortable when she was watching the show with her parents.
Daenerys bares it all after burning the Dothraki lords
In 2016, Emilia Clarke sat down on "Live with Kelly" and recounted watching a certain episode of "Game of Thrones" with her parents and how mortifying the experience was. Though her parents had kept up with the show, more or less, they were a little unenthusiastic about her plot in Season 6 of the HBO series.
"Darling, you're not doing much in this season," they told her. Nonplussed by their observation, Clarke pointed her parents to Season 6, Episode 4 ("Book of the Stranger"), an episode that ends with a very pivotal Daenerys scene in which she murders the Dothraki lords and seizes control of their armies.
Her parents held off until Clarke finally insisted. "I ended up sitting them down and being like, 'Let's watch it!' and instantly regretting it," she said. Though the scene is an incredible spectacle, seeing Daenerys set fire to a locked hut and burn her enemies alive in the process, the actress may have forgotten that the scene ends with her stark naked, having lost her clothes in the fire.
"My dad's like, 'Again!?'" Clarke recalled. Though her character had been nude before on the show in other important scenes, she hadn't appeared as such since Season 3. As if it isn't awkward enough to have your parents see you naked as an adult, to be in the room with them when it happens must have been especially embarrassing.