‘My accountant’s not happy GOT is coming to an end’
PLOT secrets are near impossible to keep.
It’s why George Lucas didn’t tell the Star Wars cast that Darth Vader was Luke’s father; the reason the last Dallas episode ‘Who Shot J.R.?’ was locked in a vault and why Alfred Hitchcock played recordings for Psycho fans as they left theatres, begging them not to reveal the movie’s end.
So it is baffling then that Game of Thrones author George RR Martin whispered the future storyline of the world’s biggest television series to Liam Cunningham.
“I know everything,” says Liam, stroking the facial hair he calls his “pubic balaclava”. “I’ve read the last six episodes. It makes me want to go in to Paddy Powers and put a few quid on.”
Is he afraid he’ll make a drunken slip over the party season? “Never, it’s like being a member of the masons.”
The only people who could find out are his family but they prefer to watch it unfold. “I used to leave the scripts lying around the house and my daughter would go mad at me screaming, ‘Put them away’.”
The actor will finish filming the last series next summer.
He is already preparing to leave the role. “It happens all the time when you are working as an actor, even jobs you love, they are always taken off you like your children, they just disappear.
“It’s going to be a massive shame. My accountant’s not happy. I’ll be back down at hatch 13 on Gardener Street collecting me dole after this.”
Asked how it feels to be financially stable as an actor, he laughs. “Unusual. That’s how it feels. Unusual and temporary! I’ve actually managed to get the tax man off me back. It only took 10 years.”
Spreaking at last week’s opening of his pal Dylan McGrath’s new venture, Bonsai Bar, the actor also says “you can’t relax”, and goes on “Because most of the stuff I do, it’s mostly artistic and not commercial. People would say ‘your career is going well’ but I don’t have a career. I go from job to job. Doctors have careers. Architects have careers. I don’t.”
He says he can never fully let go of his concerns about money because of the work he chooses to take on.
“Because most of the stuff I do is artistic and not commercial and that stuff doesn’t pay,” he says.
Still, as Game of Thrones ends its reign, the offers are piling up.
“There is stuff coming in now because my stock has gone up slightly, so I think the financiers have become a bit more confident about backing stuff that I am involved in.”
He laughs. “Still it just means there’s a larger proportion of crap coming in. I’m waiting for decent stuff.” In the meantime the Game of Thrones cast have been nominated for the both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
But Liam isn’t getting too excited. Business comes before pleasure until the cast wrap up the finale.
“It looks like I’ll be leaving my frock in the wardrobe. I’m working on the show when they’re on.”