Carice van Houten thinks #MeToo led to less nudity in 'Game of Thrones'

Photo courtesy: Instagram

Washington D.C.: It's been more than a month since we bade adieu to HBO's insanely popular show 'Game of Thrones', but the discussions surrounding the series don't seem to end.

The show got famous pretty early on for its nude scenes, but never lost its popularity even as the nudity became a lot less frequent in the fantasy drama.

Carice van Houten, who played Melisandre in the show, also showed off quite a bit of skin over the seasons, and in a new interview with Deadline, she spoke about the experience of going nude in both 'GoT' and the 2006 film 'Black Book'. 

"Yes and no," she said on being asked if she ever felt uncomfortable about the nudity.

"It wasn`t my favourite thing in the world at all. But yes, in Black Book, I experienced nudity on set. The Dutch are quite open-minded, we're a bit easier with that. but it`s never comfortable being the only one undressed on set. It was before I had a child. I would be more uncomfortable now. The times have changed in many ways. Back then, it was all a little overwhelming. No one forced me into anything, but in hindsight, I might have been a little more cautious with it," she said of the nude scenes.

The star also spoke about the #MeToo movement`s impact on the show and how much less nudity there was in later seasons of 'GoT'.

#MeToo, which rose to public consciousness during the show's run, was brought up, with Deadline commenting that the fewer scenes of nudity in later seasons were 'a reaction to that changing climate'.

The actor replied, "Yes. It also showed that you don`t need it."Clarke made her feelings on the matter clear in a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter in May, where she opened up about how frustrating it is to being getting asked about the nudity, despite not having done any in many seasons. 

"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," she said in reference to having famously not wanted to star in 'Fifty Shades of Grey'.

"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," she added.

Van Houten also opened up about a specific scene that involved no nudity but has stuck in the minds of viewers for years. In season five, Melisandre convinced Stannis to sacrifice his own daughter to the Lord of Light, and then we watched Shireen burn at the stake. The actor said she would likely look at that scene very differently now. 

"I wasn`t a mother back then. I think I would have found it more troubling now. Of course, it`s fiction, but that was raw and gruesome. I remember first reading it and thinking, 'are we actually going to do this scene?," she told Deadline.