After all, Terminator Genisys and Solo, the biggest projects besides Game of Thrones in which she played female leads, ended up being forgettable at best.

However, there was another high-profile, lucrative role, which Emilia Clarke herself declined, even despite liking the director. At one point she was offered a role in The Fifty Shades of Grey movie, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson. But the actress declined.

She already was dismayed by her nude scenes on Game of Thrones, as she explained in an interview with Elle, which concerned the question of that very offered role:

“But the last time that I was naked on camera on [Game of Thrones] was a long time ago, and yet it is the only question that I ever get asked because I am a woman.”

Whether she is ever get asked only that question because she’s a woman, or because she had failed to make other parts of her performance in the role of Daenerys memorable and impressive enough is questionable. But certainly she did not want to be forever stuck in roles which required her to be naked on screen:

“So, that coming up, I was like, ‘I can’t.’ I did a minimal amount and I’m pigeonholed for life, so me saying yes to that, where the entire thing is about sensuality and sex and being naked and all of that stuff.”

Again, multiple sex scenes and a bunch of naked appearances on top of them is not exactly “a minimal amount”, even if they were spread over several seasons, and most, if not all of them, were quite important to the plot and to her character’s motivations and attitudes.

But she certainly has every right to hold her sentiment:

“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.”