Fifty Shades Of Grey proved to be a hit with moviegoers, earning more than $550million worldwide.
The coveted lead as Anastasia Steele went to virtually unknown Dakota Johnson – now a bona fide movie star who skyrocketed to fame and is rumored to earn seven figures for its sequel.
Still, Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke has ‘no regrets’ about turning down the role, she revealed in the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.
Scroll down for video
She’s got a new throne: Emilia Clarke is named top of the New Actor A-list by The Hollywood Reporter
It is that and her top billing over Arnold Schwarzenegger in the new Terminator reboot, out on July 1, that has pushed the British actress to the top of the magazine’s New Actor A-list.
Such is her success that she’s even able now to call the shots when it comes to nudity – as in not doing it on the HBO hit series.
‘There are other women who remove items of clothing on our show, so they’ve kind of got my nipple count down now,’ she told THR.
Riding high: The British actress, 28, looks stunning in black fishnet and dramatic makeup on the cover of the industry trade magazine and says she ‘never in a million years’ thought GOT would be such a huge hit
Out of nowhere: Clarke was fresh out of drama school when she auditioned for the role of the queen Daenerys in the HBO series and five years later, she’s got top billing over Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator: Genisys
Red hot career: The actress, seen here in a black top hat and sea green dress with a plunging neckline, has cut back on her on-screen nudity and told THR: ‘They’ve kind of got my nipple count down now’ on GOT
The way she tells it, the actress actually thought she’d ‘arrived’ when, in 2010, she auditioned for the role of the queen Daenerys in Game Of Thrones.
All she could think about, she says, is the craft services laid on for the casting director and producers.
‘There was a huge, incredible plateau of fruit,’ she recalled. ‘I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve arrived. This is a serious audition.”
That audition changed her life and her career.
Game of Thrones has become the most successful show in HBO history, surpassing even The Sopranos, with an average 18.4 million viewers an episode across all platforms.
‘Never in a million years did I think Game of Thrones was going to take off like it did,’ said Clarke.. ‘It’s taken me five years to catch up with it. I’m still not sure I’m there.’
At the top of the heap: The Mother Of Dragons has Hollywood at her feet and even had to turn down Oliver Stone because she’s so busy
Hollywood is coming calling as a result of her terrific performance as the Mother Of Dragons on the gritty and bloody dynastic drama.
She was chosen for the iconic role of Sarah Connor in Terminator: Genisys for which she underwent some serious weapons training so she could handle a machine gun convincingly on screen.
She gets better billing than Schwarzenegger for the action movie which also landed her a new boyfriend, her Australian co-star Jai Courtney.
Oliver Stone also wanted her to play Edward Snowden’s girlfriend in his film about the whistleblower but she was already committed to the tearjerker Me Before You, set to film this summer, and couldn’t fit in Stone’s movie as well as her GOT commitments.
‘My heart broke,’ she said of turning Stone down.
She does it all: Clarke, who stars as Sarah Connor in the Terminator reboot, learned how to machine gun cyborgs convincingly, and next up will star in the tearjerker Me Before You based on the best-selling novel