Clash of the titans
As Daenerys’s dragons take on the army of the dead in the Game Of Thrones finale, cast and crew share their most memorable moments
JON’S NOT A MOPEY TEENAGER ANY MORE – HE’S BECOME A POLITICIAN
The struggle for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros is finally reaching its climax. When the world tunes in to the eighth – and last – season of Game Of
Thrones next week, one of the most eagerly anticipated TV series ever to come to the screen, they will be saying goodbye not only to Cersei and Jaime, to Tyrion, Arya and the relentlessly noble Jon Snow, but also to a plot whose twists and turns, shock revelations and regular bloodlettings have had us sighing, crying and occasionally covering our eyes since the show started in 2011.
Details of the final series, six episodes that took 10 months to film, are more closely guarded than the keys to the Throne Room, and rumours of who will – and who will not – survive the inevitable ultimate battle are as hotly disputed as the rights to the throne itself. Though the TV show is based on fantasy books by George RR Martin, he’s not yet finished writing the tale, so no one knows how the story will end. His wildly popular A Song Of
Fire And Ice series, which has made him millions, was always intended to comprise seven novels, but the final two books in the series,
The Winds Of Winter and A Dream of Spring, are yet to be published, so producers of the TV series have been carrying the story on, with Martin’s blessing.
‘The fans will not be let down,’ director David Nutter has said. ‘There are a lot of firsts in these episodes. There’s the funniest sequence I’ve ever shot on the show, the most emotional scene I’ve ever shot, and there’s one scene where there are so many characters together it feels like you’re watching a superhero movie.’
That scene is in the epic Great
Battle of Winterfell episode (see panel overleaf), and one thing coexecutive producer Bryan Cogman assures us is that when we sit down to watch it we would do well to have a box or two of Kleenex at the ready. ‘It’s an incredibly emotional, haunting, bittersweet final season,’ he says. ‘It’s about all these disparate characters coming together to face a common enemy, dealing with their pasts and defining the person they want to be in the face of certain death.’
We’re on the set in Belfast today, where the lead actors whose characters have survived thus far are speaking about the show ahead of the final series. And Kit Harington, whose character, Jon Snow, has been captured and attacked, fallen in love with Daenerys Targaryen without realising she’s his aunt, and even died and been resurrected, agrees that, for the actors as much as for the viewers, this series is a poignant one. ‘I found it much more emotional than I thought it was going to be,’ he says. ‘I usually think of myself as the cynical, realistic, unbothered Englishman, and I didn’t think I’d think twice about ending this. But when we were in the rehearsal room and doing the read-through for the final season… well, I found it quite a punch to the gut. I’ve never been in an institution of any sort as long as I’ve been with
Game Of Thrones, and it felt a bit like leaving school – part of me was feeling like I was tugging on my parents’ apron strings, not wanting to leave at all.’
So how to explain the extraordinary attraction of Game Of Thrones
– the fan clubs and newsletters, the videos on YouTube analysing the trailers for each series?
For Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen, the answer is quite simple: it’s all about the plot. ‘I think that if you spend your day working in an office, then afterwards you go to the cinema or turn on the TV and get to be transported to a whole other time and place, then your brain gets to stop and you spend a couple of hours living in a whole different world,’ she says. ‘But I think the extra joy of
Game Of Thrones is that, alongside this fantastical element, you have beautifully realised characters in intricate power plays that are wonderfully well written.’
Emilia, who only revealed last month that she suffered a brain aneurysm that nearly killed her shortly after filming the first series in 2011, adds that it also helps that the show is strong on the kick-ass female element. ‘You might see a woman in one episode who maybe isn’t being treated so well, but by the end she’s sure as hell up and
fighting again. I love that.’ Foremost among the tough women is warrior Brienne of Tarth, gleefully embodied by Star Wars actress Gwendoline Christie, all 6ft 3in of her. ‘Brienne isn’t cute or sexy,’ says Gwendoline. ‘She doesn’t have any of the conventional attributes women are supposed to have to be appealing, and her storyline hasn’t been focused around a driving desire for her to have romantic love.
‘I’ve loved playing her because, yes, I am extremely strong, yes, I’m taller than average, yes, I’m unusual looking, and this character has allowed me to embrace that and not be scared of it any more. I used to have very long hair and wear a lot of make-up, never stopped wearing the high heels. But for this I had to change the way I walked, chop off my hair, take off the make-up. And I’ve loved that. I love the idea that we are all allowed to exist as we were born, we don’t all have to look or be the same.’
The story has never shied away from bloodthirsty moments, including, for Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister, the loss of his right hand, chopped off by bandits a couple of seasons ago. ‘At first it was a pain in the butt,’ Nicolaj says of Jaime’s disability.
‘Because I had a prosthetic stump and I had to hide my own hand in my pocket or wherever. But then they gave me my golden hand, which is basically a metal glove and that made it easier – although your hand can get really sweaty in there, so it gets disgusting at times.
‘Losing his hand has been a very interesting challenge for Jaime to face, because it’s forced him to rethink himself and choose a new identity. It’s turned into a great thing to have happened to him.’
Meanwhile, Maisie Williams spent part of season six sightless as Arya Stark, the youngest daughter of murdered northern lord Ned Stark. Arya was training as an assassin and her sight was temporarily taken away as punishment. ‘I had to wear contact lenses,’ Maisie groans. ‘I had four pairs with varying amounts of vision. It was interesting because I did a lot of physical work while wearing them, and it turned out I learned my directions a lot easier when I had them in because I was using my ears, not my eyes.
‘I know I damaged my eyes by wearing them, but they did look great on camera, which is what mattered.’ At just 21 Maisie has been in
Thrones since she was 12, and says that for her the cast – in particular the female members – have become almost like family. ‘It’s been wonderful having these extraordinary women around me, always treating me like another woman, not a child. In the beginning, myself and Sophie Turner, who plays my sister Sansa, and Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who’s my brother Bran, were very much the children on the show, while the others were the adults. But in so many ways they accepted us as adults all along. Now we’re pretty much all adults anyway, Isaac’s nearly 20 and he’s so tall!’
The three youngsters are popular among the older cast, with Kit Harington admitting that he regards them almost as his younger siblings.
‘I find it particularly fascinating to see Maisie and Sophie right now because I do think of them as my younger sisters. I was 22 when I started, so now they’re finishing at the age I started.’
He says that both he and his character have seen a few changes. ‘Jon’s grown up. He’s changed – he’s become a politician. Having gone to the brink and having seen things other people haven’t, he starts manipulating people. He’s not quite the mopey teenager any more. He’s a bit more of a man on a mission.’
At 32, and recently married to his former co-star Rose Leslie, who played the tragic Ygritte – one of a tribe of wild folk, who was killed in battle in season four – he says that he’s matured along with his character. ‘I was thrust into a position of fame very young and I struggled with that. When I was about 28 I really freaked out about it. But I’ve changed since then, and I feel like an adult now.’
Iain Glen – better known as Jorah Mormont, a disgraced knight who joined Daenerys’s cause to claim the Iron Throne – has been with the series from the start and says the bonds he’s formed are unusually strong. ‘Your life as an actor is very ephemeral and you get used to the slightly superficial nature of things. You get involved with people very quickly, and then have to say goodbye. So it’s been unusual to do something that you come back to year after year – your feelings for each other really do evolve over time. It’s become a real friendship.’
Kit is adamant that, although the show has finished shooting, those friendships will remain. ‘We’ve always spent six months of the year around each other, and the other six not really spending any time with each other at all because we knew we’d be seeing each other again.
‘We don’t have that luxury any more, so we’re really going to have to start making an effort. I am actually still friends with a lot of people who have been on the show anyway and aren’t in it any more, such as Richard Madden… and Rose, of course!’
Game Of Thrones returns on Monday, April 15, on Sky Atlantic and Now TV.
YOUR FEELINGS DO EVOLVE OVER TIME. IT HAS BECOME A REAL FRIENDSHIP