In 2011, the US network HBO premiered an ambitious fiction project with which it adapted the series of epic fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire. This literary saga had become one of the most important of the genre in recent decades, although it had always been considered “niche”. HBO’s intention was to present it as an epic blockbuster of pure fantasy with touches of drama and thriller, and the formula worked even better than they themselves expected. The Game of Thrones phenomenon crossed borders and became a true revolution not only in the world of television, but also in culture in general. If before those products were for “geeks”, the series had managed to maximize its audience and bring these tropes into the mainstream. Everyone enjoyed the novelistic intrigues, the epic fights… and the risque scenes.
As in any good HBO production, Game of Thrones also had quite explicit sexual scenes, something that was not so common at the time. The fact of being broadcast on cable television gave much more creative freedom to its creators, who were not shy about taking out nudes in each episode of the first season. Some as famous as one of the protagonists, Emilia Clarke, who played the role of Daenerys Targaerean. The sex was part of the plot naturally, either through the wedding night of Daenerys herself with her husband Karl Drogo, or in different scenes where the characters frequented brothels in different areas of Westeros. As in the Middle Ages, the nobles and knights used to meet in these places of vice and sensuality to enjoy the women bodies, but also to do business. They were very appropriate places to be calm and have all the confidence in the world with our partners. In one of those brothels, little Tyrion Lannister met Shae, a young prostitute who would steal his heart, and who would have a very important role in the first seasons of the series. The prostitute was played by Sibel Kekilli, a German actress who came… from the world of porn.
A talented actress
Sibel Kekilli was born in Hellbronn in 1980, shortly after her family moved from Turkey. His ancestry also marked his early years, alluding to the racism he received from time to time from his peers, something common at that time in a Germany not so used to immigration.
After graduating from high school with excellent grades, Kekilli studied to become a Public Administration Specialist, a job she held at Hellbronn City Hall for a couple of years. Then she would move to Essen, where she would combine various jobs with her first steps as an actress. And it is that the girl decided to venture into acting through porn cinema.
His stage in the cinema X
Still quite young, Sibel decided to make some porn tapes to have some fun and earn some money. She was promised that the tapes would not be shown in Germany, as she was afraid that her family would recognize her. Those scenes passed, in principle, without pain or glory, since he barely recorded half a dozen of them. However, the girl strives in all of them with an unusual passion, proving that the sex scenes were really her thing. Her body, one hundred percent natural and with small curves, instantly fell in love. So much so that, while in Cologne, already in 2003, a casting director discovered her in a shopping center and asked her to play a role in an independent film. It was Against The Wall, which in 2004 would become a revelation in German cinema.
At just 24 years old, Sibel managed to make everyone fall in love with her performance in this film, even winning the Lola Award for Best Actress, the most prestigious award in German cinema. It was then when that newly released fame played a trick on her, exposing her too much. Many had seen Sibel’s scenes on the Internet, and warned that such an important actress had been a pornstar before appearing on the big screen. The controversy in Germany was reproduced in many media, but it just stayed there, almost an anecdote. The girl managed to leave it behind and have a brilliant career, winning another award for Best Actress six years later and establishing herself as one of the best young German actresses. And then came the role by which everyone recognizes them today.
Her role as a prostitute in Game of Thrones
The production of Game of Thrones carried out different castings in 2010 in search of its protagonists, but also of secondary characters for the cast. Most of them were of British origin, but there were also somewhat more exotic faces, and Kekilli was one of them. With several years of experience in the industry, the girl became Shae, a prostitute who would steal the heart of the perceptive Tyrion Lannister. Sibel already appears in the first season of the fiction, and becomes a key character in the plot of the half-man, with whom she has several sneaky and sexual encounters. Both will end up in love with each other, but things in Westeros are never easy.
Shae continued for four seasons appearing in HBO fiction, first as Tyrion’s lover and later, also as Sansa’s lady, when she marries the dwarf. The success of the series returned Kekilli to the nightmare of once again having to face social scrutiny for her past in the world of porn. The actress refused to speak in interviews on that topic, alluding to the fact that it had nothing to do with Game of Thrones. In the series she also appeared naked and in some sexual scenes, but they were far from as explicit as those she had starred in years before. The ghost of those porn scenes would always haunt her, even after being praised for her role in the series and demonstrating her acting talent.
She wasn’t the only one
The case of Kekilli has been the most striking in HBO’s fiction, but not the only one in which a pornstar or an erotic model participated in the fiction. The scenes in brothels and with prostitutes were constant, so many actresses capable of handling them with sensuality and morbidity were needed. Actresses like Maise Dee or Emma Bryant, the majority of British origin, have also had small roles in HBO fiction.
Most of them appeared naked and working as sex workers, given the high demand for this role in the series. These other actresses, not having as much prominence in the plots, have not been as popular as Kekilli. Ironically, most of them had a much longer and more lustrous pornographic career than that of the German-Turkish actress herself at the time of appearing in the fiction.