“There’s a new character that was introduced last night on Game of Thrones, and the new character is a penis,” quipped Stephen Colbert on The Late Show Monday night. “A penis was shown on the show. About damn time, right?”
Colbert’s guest was Emilia Clarke, the fetching British actress who plays Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen, the Breaker of Chains and (some say) rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Back in April, Clarke, who’s appeared nude on the show several times, told Conan O’Brien, “I think we should get some equal male nudity and female nudity…I think it is a discussion that should be had.”She then added, “Free the penis.”Well, Thrones did free the penis in Sunday night’s thrilling episode, “The Door,” only it wasn’t exactly sexy. The schlong didn’t belong to Jaime Lannister or Jon Snow, but rather an actor playing the late piece of shit Joffrey in a play witnessed by Arya Stark. Not exactly Valyrian steel.
Still, it was a somewhat promising development for Thrones, which has a frustrating penchant for ogling the female body while keeping its men very clothed. And when you do see a penis on Thrones, it’s usually in an unsexy context—e.g. that gross man that flashed his junk at Cersei during her walk of Shame! Shame! Shame!
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So to answer Colbert’s question, Clarke replied: “Well, I think so! I did it, so why can’t the boys do it? I think they heard me. Junk equality!”
The “I did it” scene Clarke is referring to came in the previous week’s episode, “Book of the Stranger,” where her Khaleesi burned an entire hut of khals to the ground, only to emerge from the flames nude and in full-on Queen mode. Clarke later admitted that it was the real thing—she didn’t use a body double.
“Two weeks ago—spoiler alert—you brought the hurt to the khals by setting fire to all of them, and then emerging from the fire, since you’re fireproof…you emerged with all your clothes burned away, and you could have used a body double, but you decided not to use a body double. Was that important to you?” asked Colbert.“Well it just…I mean…There’s lots of reasons why lots of actors would definitely use a body double, but I did it before in Season 1 and people like to talk about it, so I just wanted to come out and do an empowered scene which wasn’t sexual,” said Clarke. “It was naked, it was strong.”“I’m kicking ass naked!” she added. “If you can do it without any clothes, you’re a real badass.”
