Carice van Houten owes her ‘Game of Thrones’ stardom to Seth Meyers

Dutch actress Carice van Houten made her American late night talk show debut on Tuesday night with her good friend Seth Meyers. The two have known each other for a long time, and as Meyers explained, without him, her fame as the Red Priestess Melisandre on HBO’s “Game of Thrones” might never have come to pass.

“I deserve a little bit of credit because when you got offered the part of Melisandre, you texted me because you assumed I was nerdy enough to have read the books,” Meyers said. “And you were right. And I told you you should do it. And yet, I haven’t seen a dime!”

“You’re basically responsible for my whole career,” she responded.

Van Houten joined the series in its second season and appears in the fifth season which just started airing Sunday. And like many of the cast members, she has to appear nude quite frequently. Something that isn’t as big of a deal in the European country where she lives.

“I always feel like everyone thinks the Dutchy will do it,” Van Houten said. “If the others characters won’t do it, the Dutchy will do it.”

Van Houten said her philosophy toward the nudity is to de-sexualize it as much as possible, arriving on set nude and making no attempt to cover up. She said it quickly loses all mystique.

“That’s great and it must work, because they keep writing them for you,” Meyers responded.

Twitter: @patrickkevinday