Still craving for more Game of Thrones?
We already know we won't be getting any more Game of Thrones episode until next year (or worse, 'til 2019). To keep us alive amidst the GOT drought, HBO is treating fans with not only a look at the behind the scenes of some of this season's most iconic moments, but also with snippets of quotes from the cast interviews.
Here's Isaac Hempstead Wright (who plays Bran Stark), Daniel Portman (Podrick "Pod" Payne), Carice Van Houten (Melisandre), Rory McCacnn (Sandor "The Hound" Clegane), and Aidan Gillen (Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish) sharing their thoughts on the season.
Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark)
Q: How does Bran find out about Jon’s parentage?
IHW: He only gets the full picture when Samwell Tarly comes to Winterfell and goes to him, ‘Hang on a second, there was this secret wedding’. Bran can then go back in time and sort of look it up, like something in a dictionary. He establishes the wedding did happen and that’s when he goes, ‘Right, now is the time to tell Jon that he’s a legitimate heir to the throne: more legitimate than Daenerys.’ But will he even bother mentioning it to Jon – because I think Bran recognises that all these kind of petty squabbles between Daenerys, Jon, Sansa and whoever are totally irrelevant in the face of the threat that will actually destroy civilisation. So it will be interesting to see whether Bran withholds that bit of information.
Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne)
Q: You mention that this season several long-separated characters are re-united. What was that like for the cast?
DP: We were all out in Seville and you had the biggest assembly of these named characters I’ve seen. I was seeing Jerome [Flynn] and Peter [Dinklage], and guys that I’ve maybe not seen for a few years – Rory [McCann] and people like that. You just bump into all these people and then you’re all staying in the same hotel, so you’d have dinner with each other at night and maybe have a couple of beers. It was a really, really nice way to wrap the season for me, being around all these people that I hadn’t got to see that often, and getting to spend a bit more time with them. When the audience first realises that this season they’re going to get everybody, essentially, in one room, they’re going to freak out! You’re going to get Jamie and Brienne again, and you get Pod and Tyrion again; you’re going to get Cersei and Tyrion, you’re going to get the Hound; you’re going to get all this stuff that people have been begging for four years, and it’s all going to hit you at once.
Carice Van Houten (Melisandre)
Q: What’s the feeling like now that we’re on the homeward stretch amongst the cast, and particularly for yourself? Are you starting to look back on the show?
CVH: A little bit, yeah. I’m thinking, “Ah, what a shame that it’s going to end and I’m really not going to see a lot of people anymore”, and I’m also sad that I’m not going to travel to Belfast. I’m going to have to look for another job that’s equally interesting, which is going to be really difficult, because roles like that don’t come along very often. There were moments where there were personal things happening that I will always connect to certain shooting days, but I’ve had loads of fun as well, even on really tough days like in the cave giving birth to the shadow baby; I mean there was Liam there making jokes while the prosthetic team were blowing air up in my prosthetic belly, and it was funny as well. I’ll miss it. But we still have one more season to go so it’s not over yet.
Rory McCann (The Hound)
Q: There are many great re-acquaintances in the show this year. Who does the Hound meet for old times’ sake?
RM: I catch up with Brienne, after she ‘killed’ him last time. But I think Sandor’s at, kind of, peace with her. He understands that she was doing her job and he was doing the same kind of job and they just had a clash. That was all cool and that was great to work with Gwendoline [Christie] again. It was all good. There was almost a smile between us.
Q: Anyone else?
RM: Yeah I meet my brother, The Mountain, Gregor Clegane, this year, played by Hafpor [Júlíus Björnsson]. That’s a first. They bump in to each other in the big sort of UN conference in the Dragon’s Pit in King’s Landing. That was great because even though in the scenes there’s all this big politics going on all The Hound sees is his brother and he doesn’t care what’s going on. He walks up and goes, “Remember me? You’re still getting it by the way.” It’s a quick conversation but you just know the fans are going, “I knew it! Here we go – this bloody Clegane-bowl is on!”
Q: Are you excited at the prospect?
RM: Yeah I’d better start bloody training! He’s not that much taller than me but if it kicks off, I’m still gonna be the Jack Russell and he’s gonna be the Rottweiler.
Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger)
Q: In this series he does in fact get his come-uppance. What were your feelings about the end?
AG: I thought a character like that would definitely have to have it coming, and that the audience would expect it – given that when you analyse it, most of the chaos that’s enveloped this world, he has had a hand in. Even just specific single acts like the betrayal of Ned Stark. Or the murder of Lysa Arryn. Dontos [Hollard] was a character that people really liked, he was Sansa’s ally you know, and Littlefinger did for him too… there’s been so many despicable things. So the convention says this guy has to get his come-uppance. Now this show doesn’t always look at conventions, in fact one of its stances is that it avoids conventions entirely. But Littlefinger is not stupid enough to think that it’ll last forever. As he says to Robyn Arryn in Season Four, people die all the time. They die at the kitchen table; they die sitting on their chamber pots. The important thing is to live your life you know, because you’re here once. So he’s had a good run but we’d still like to think that when it happens it’s a bolt from the blue for the audience. I wasn’t surprised but I think they will be.
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Homestream Image courtesy of HBO
