The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
Iconic TV Director Looks Back David Nutter, Peak TV maestro for Game of Thrones and Sopranos, on his best and worst episodes
He’s been called the “pilot whisperer.” Across his four-decade career, David Nutter has an extraordinary track record of directing 25 broadcast TV pilots and getting 21 of those picked up to series (including The Mentalist, The Flash, Supernatural and Smallville). Even more impressive is Nutter’s work on premium cable, where he’s helmed some of the finest episodes of television ever made across HBO series such as Game of Thrones,
The Sopranos and Band of Brothers. Since his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, though, he’s more selective than ever. “When I first got Parkinson’s, I was doing season eight of Game of Thrones and didn’t tell anybody,” says Nutter, who will receive the lifetime achievement award at the 2024 DGA Awards. “What I found was I became more empathetic, more compassionate and caring about people. When you love what you’re doing, nothing is going to stop you.”
What’s the best pilot you ever made?
I had just done a feature film called Disturbing Behavior (1998). I had the worst time of my life on it. It was supposed to be a teenage X-Files and they wanted to turn it into something else. Then I was sent a script called Roswell [for The WB]. It was exactly what I wanted to do, and it became the highest-testing pilot in the history of 20th Century Fox Television.
And the worst?
In 2016, I had Parkinson’s disease before I knew I had Parkinson’s disease, and I was suffering from it a little bit when I directed this [Paranormal Activity-style] drama pilot from Kevin Williamson. It never saw the light of day, and there’s a reason it never saw the light of day.
Of course, I have to ask you about “The Rains of Castamere,” aka the Red Wedding. What’s
something about making that episode of Game of Thrones you haven’t told before?
This was the last episode some of those actors were going to be in the series. There was that moment where Oona Chaplin’s character [Talisa Stark] is stabbed and Robb [Richard Madden] crawls over to her and he’s crying and dying. He needed a bit more motivation, so I started explaining to him how much he loved her and saying all these things. He got so into it, everyone started crying. The hair and makeup ladies behind me were crying.
And finally, the hardest lesson you learned?
Not spending enough time with family. Looking back, it was a really tough road — my wife died of pancreatic cancer in 2019. Since then, I’ve tried to make it up to my kids every day as much as I can.