Nathalie Emmanuel: Directors think I'm 'open to anything' after 'Game of Thrones' nudity
Nathalie Emmanuel says she has clashed with some directors who expect her to do nude scenes following her role as Missandei in Game of Thrones.
Speaking on the Make It Reign podcast, the 32-year-old Brit said that doing nude scenes in the HBO fantasy show led some filmmakers to make assumptions.
“When I did Game of Thrones, I agreed to certain nude scenes or nudity within the show and the perception of that from other projects when the role required nudity, was that I was open to do anything because I did it on that one show” Emmanuel explains.
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The Fast & Furious star, who played Missandei for six seasons of Thrones, admits that she has to stand her ground during negotiations about the level of nudity she is willing to do for particular projects when she is challenged by directors: “I’ve definitely had people challenge me and be like ‘but this part requires that’.”
“And I said: ‘well that’s fine if you require that in the part, I don’t feel comfortable doing that level of nudity.”
“I will do this amount, or I can do what I feel us necessary for that part.”
With parts in franchises such as Fast and Furious and Maze Runner and her first big role as Sasha Valentine in Hollyoaks at just 17, she added that she is confident enough to walk away from roles if she is not comfortable with the demands:
“Frankly, if someone was insisting, ‘we need this nudity’, I would say, ‘thank you very much, I appreciate your interest, but that’s just not what I feel is necessary for this part’.”
Emmanuel also opened up about the impact that Missandei’s death had on viewers and the conversation that was started as a result of the “only long running woman of colour” being killed off:
“When she died, everyone was like, ‘she's the only woman of colour in the show and we've got to invest and grow to love and learn about and she's the only one!’"
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“I think that my death kind of sparked this conversation around why can there only be one? And when there is only one, how do we treat that person? How do we treat that woman of colour? How do we give her the respect that she deserves?”
“I was really proud of the fact that her exit sparked this really important conversation, because it's not just this show, it is many shows [that do not always have diversity in mind when casting, writing or producing].”
Watch: Nathalie Emmanuel on the response to the BLM movement
