'Game of Thrones' star Emilia Clarke talks sex scene, hints at surviving to the final season

Emilia Clarke poses for Elle magazine. (Alexi Lubomirski )

With “Game of Thrones” premiering its penultimate season this week, one of the show’s biggest stars is reflecting on her time with the series and the one scene she’s particularly proud of filming thus far.

Emilia Clarke, who fans know as Daenerys Targaryen, Khaleesi, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains and several other names on the hit HBO series, spoke with Elle Magazine about her role. Most notably, she discussed her character’s steamy sex scene with Daario Naharis, played by Michiel Huisman. Fans have heralded the moment when Clarke’s character demands that the man serving in her court take off his clothes. The actress says she was thrilled to have such a feminist moment after several seasons of the opposite.

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“It's brilliant. I actually went up to ['Game of Thrones' co-creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss] and thanked them,” she said. “I was like, 'That's a scene I've been waiting for!' Because I get a lot of crap for having done nudes scenes and sex scenes. That, in itself, is so antifeminist. Women hating on other women is just the problem. That's upsetting, so it's kind of wonderful to have a scene where I was like, 'There you go!'”

In addition to looking at the past, the actress looked ahead to the future of her character. It’s been confirmed that “Game of Thrones” will end after Season 8, and Clarke is having some conflicting feelings about that fact.

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“Oh God, I get sleepless nights over it. 'Oh, you're gonna mess it up. It's the last season, and it's going to go wrong.' My mates are like, 'It's you—you [and Daenerys] are one and the same now. You need to trust your instincts!' And I'm like, ' No, I've got to do more research!' The higher everyone places the mantle, the bigger the fall. That sounds really awful, but it's true! I don't want to disappoint anyone."

Of course, regardless of how she performs in Season 8, many may be relieved to simply here that Daenerys will be around. Season 7 premieres Sunday and the stakes have never been as high. For a show that prides itself on no character being safe from the grim reaper, Clarke’s misgivings about messing up the final season appear to confirm her character makes it through the upcoming episodes alive.