How Emilia Clarke Really Felt About Her Game of Thrones Sex Scene With Michiel Huisman

The seventh season of Game of Thrones premieres on July 16, but before we return to the bloody battles and scary White Walkers, Emilia Clarke is getting candid about the other major theme on the show: sex. The actress, who plays Daenerys Targaryen, opens up in Elle's August issue about what it was really like shooting her steamy sex scene with Michiel Huisman (Daario Naharis) in the fourth season of the show. "It's brilliant. I actually went up to [GOT cocreators 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!'"

Back in March, Clarke penned a powerful essay about feminism for the Huffington Post UK, in which she explained why she doesn't have to justify her nude scenes on the show, writing, "If you've watched Game of Thrones then, spoiler, you will have seen me in the nude. There are plenty of ways in which people want me to respond to questions about this fact. And plenty of reasons why I do not feel the need to justify myself."