'Game Of Thrones' Star Gemma Whelan Complains About Shooting Sex Scenes On HBO Show
Nov. 2 2021, Published 12:13 p.m. ET
Gemma Chan, who played Yara Greyjoy on HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones, describes the show’s famous sex scenes as a “frenzied mess” that were filmed with little direction from the show’s directors.
According to an interview between Gemma and The Guardian, the sex scenes on Game of Thrones were not only a “frenzied mess”, but she also claims the actors were allegedly “left to get on with it” when it came to shooting such scenes.
“They used to just say, ‘When we shout action, go for it!’, and it could be a sort of frenzied mess,” Gemma told the outlet. “A director might say, ‘Bit of boob biting, then slap her bum and go!’”
But even though Gemma made it clear the show’s directors didn’t provide as much instruction as the actors would have liked during the sex scenes, she also emphasized the actors would communicate and “check in with each other” beforehand.
“There was a scene in a brothel with a woman and she was so exposed that we talked together about where the camera would be and what she was happy with,” Gemma told the outlet. “I'd always talk it through with the other actor.”
Gemma Chan is only the most recent Game of Thrones actor to speak out about the sex scenes that the show was known for. Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen and was shown naked many times throughout the show’s eight seasons, has been very vocal in the past when discussing the nude and sex scenes depicted on the screen.
“I'm starting to get really annoyed about this stuff now because people say, 'Oh, yeah, all the porn sites went down when Game of Thrones came back on,’” Emilia said about the commentary on the nudity and sex in the show. “'There are so many shows centered around this very true fact that people reproduce. People f--k for pleasure – it's a part of life.”
But no matter your opinion regarding the nude and sex scenes in Game of Thrones, it still comes as a surprise that Gemma described the instruction while filming those scenes as a “frenzied mess” because, believe it or not, as of 2021 there are a reported 20 registered intimacy coordinators in Britain whose very job is to coordinate and choreograph the sex scenes filmed for television and film.
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Clearly, according to Gemma, Game of Thrones did not have any intimacy coordinators on their set.
