Emilia Clarke says her piece on sex scenes, Kit Harington says too much

The Game of Thrones production news out of Girona is coming thick and fast, but the cast members are still finding time to do some press. First up, Emilia Clarke talked with a reporter from The Daily Mail about the sex scenes on the show. Basically, she’s not a fan. “Sex scenes should be more subtle,” she said. “I’m British, so I cringe at that sort of thing anyway — I can’t stand it.”

Okay, so Clarke didn’t explicitly say that she’s talking about Game of Thrones here, but you don’t have to read between too many lines to guess what’s she’s getting at. “‘Most sex scenes you see in films or on TV are gratuitous and they’re usually just to attract an audience,” she continued. “On screen, the subtler the better.”

It’s been suggested before that Clarke isn’t thrilled about the nudity on the show. A couple years back, Oona Chaplin (Talisa Stark) said that one cast member had told the network executives that she “wanted to be known for my acting, not my breasts.” Clarke hasn’t done any nude scenes since Season 3, so it’s assumed that the cast member in question was her.

Game of Thrones has a history of gratuitous nudity, so you can see where Clarke is coming from. Still, there’s an argument to be made that, at least so far as Clarke is concerned, most of her nude scenes haven’t fallen into that category. The final scene of Season 1, where she rose naked from the ashes of Khal Drogo’s pyre with her newborn dragons, was more about Daenerys’ rebirth as a leader than anything salacious, and that moment in Season 3 where she exited the bath in front of Daario 1.0 reversed expectations by making the naked woman the one with the power, rather than the armed man with the blade. Still, the lack of nude scenes involving Daenerys hasn’t hurt the show over the past two seasons, so it should be fine.

Moving along, a Redditor recently translated part of an interview Kit Harington gave in Humo, a Belgian magazine. It’s unclear when exactly the interview was given, but a couple of Harington’s comments about Game of Thrones are worth mentioning.

"Harington: I often felt frustrated as well. I had to pass on amazing parts because I was attached to Game of Thrones. So the show is like a double-egded sword to me: I owe a lot to it, but at the same time it has almost completely drained me. Oh well, I try not to think about it too much. The important thing is that I now know exactly how long I am still under contract, and in the meantime–Interviewer: How many more seasons would that be?Harington: Nice try (laughs). I can’t talk about that. Let’s just say that Game of Thrones will remain a part of my life for a while, I’ll probably be in my thirties when it’s over. One thing’s for sure: the day I’m no longer onThrones is the day I’ll bury myself in movie projects (laughs)."

First of all, it always surprises me a little when actors talk about how their claims to fame are holding them back. I mean, I’m sure everything Harington is saying is true—he probably has had to turn down a lot of promising movie roles, and I’ve no doubt that the show is exhausting to make—but would those movie roles have been offered if he had never been on Game of Thrones? Eh, frustration makes people say silly things.

More important is the bit where Harington implies that Game of Thrones will be a part of his life until he’s “in [his] thirties.” Harington will turn 29 this December, after filming on Season 6 wraps. That seems like a clear hint that he’s coming back next year, not that there was a ton of doubt left on that front, given all the leaks and rumors about it. Still, add this to the pile of evidence that Season 6 will see a return for Jon Snow.

Next: The Tyrells and the sparrows gear up: more shots of the coming conflict