LONDON — When he’s not playing the surly Hound, Rory McCann enjoys chopping wood and dropping even more F-bombs.
Savagely cruel Ironborn uncle Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbaek) is a jocular guy with punchlines in his back pocket. He also gets along pretty well with his niece, Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan), who off the set prefers vintage-style dresses to leathery armor.
“We both cleaned up nice, didn’t we. The Greyjoys had a bath,” Whelan said.
Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner)? Really tall. She talks Stark values and would like Sansa to get an interesting death scene. Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen) loves to film in the snow because it’s a good backdrop for his black-cloaked character.
It turns out that Game of Thrones’ only nice guy, Davos “Onion Knight” Seaworth, is in fact a really nice guy who sneaks stuff from the show’s set for his daughter to collect on her “Wall of Awesome.”
“I liberated some coins at the bank of Braavos a few seasons ago,” he said.
The crippled warg Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) brushes aside fan theories about his character, and when he’s not leading the Unsullied, Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) speaks terrible Valyrian.
“I wasn’t very good at languages in school,” said Jacob. “A lot of people asked me to speak to them in Valyrian and I’m like… ‘No, I remember nothing.”
As the hype machine gets cranking before the penultimate season of the runaway hit HBO show, Khaosod English sat down with nearly a dozen of the show’s marquee actors in the heart of the Old Smoke.
As we said before, the press visit was arranged through AIS, which is promoting the recent launch of HBO Go on its AIS Play service.
So as the resident superfan, I went off to London on a mission to get answers to your questions from the cast members themselves.
The interviews were conducted in pools – I was placed on Team Targaryen – with the actors mostly taking turns two at a time.
Some pairings were curious: The Hound and Samwell Tarly, Littlefinger and Bran Stark, Podrick and Grey Worm. Why?
Unfortunately for fans of the Red Woman Melisandre, Carice van Houten was a no-show. HBO staff said she was ill, though her Instagram feed showed she was stalking around the place somewhere.
Of course plot questions about Season 7 or beyond were off-limits. But from the joys of being Ironborn, Pod’s one weird trick and the Onion Knight’s sense of justice, we did get answers to many of the questions you posed. You can also listen to the actors answer your questions!
Those who aren’t caught up on the series should be warned: There be spoilers below.
‘What do you like about the Ironborn culture?’
Pilou Asbaek (Euron Greyjoy): The killing!
Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy): The raping. Pillaging. Stealing.
Pilou: People die!
Gemma: Death. Blood and anger.
Pilou: And boats.
Gemma: And sunshine.
Pilou: I like that it’s a sea-strong nation. That reminds me of home. I like that. On a personal note, I like my costume for the next season.
‘What do you think makes Podrick so popular with women, and will he get a chance to put it to use again in Season 7?’
Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne): Well, first things first, I like you disarming me there with a compliment. Thanks. Secondly, I’m not answering any question about Season 7. I don’t know, everyone seems to think that Pod’s got this (unintelligible) this thing that women … love. I’m not gonna tell you. I mean, there’s a chance. There’s always a chance. Where it’s a will, there’s a way, right
Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm): Where there is a willy …
‘What is your favorite episode?’
John Bradley (Samwell Tarly): My favorite episode is still Episode 9 of Season 1 with the Ned Stark beheading. It’s still my favorite, because that was the moment where we all, where the world said this show is different. There are certain rules and disciplines that apply in TV, where … no matter how confusing it gets, you have one character who says, ‘Take my hand, and I’ll lead you through all this, and I will be your guide and moral center.’ And you think you have that, you latch onto Ned Stark as the dependable character. He’s gonna make everything okay as long he’s there then you’ve got a touchstone, and you’ll be able to navigate your way through the series no matter how complicated it gets. And by Episode 9 he’s gone.
Rory McCann (The Hound): Bastards!
John: And he’s killed, and you think all bets are off now.
‘Will Sansa be satisfied with just reconquering Winterfell, or do you think she’s aiming for the Iron Throne itself this season?’
Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark): I think she has no plans to go and get the Iron Throne. I think she’s kinda done with that. I think she’s happy to be home. She wants to see her family again. I think that’s all she wants is for her family to come back to her. And for it to kind of go back to normal which it never will but … just to be stronger as a unit. But I think her hopes and dreams of becoming queen and sitting on the Iron Throne are long gone. Someone asked me earlier, ‘Do you think she’ll ever get married and have kids’ and I was like, does she really want that at this point I think she’s done with relationships. So yeah, I think she just wants her family by her side and to be respected and I think, hopefully, she’ll get that.
‘Why didn’t Ser Davos kill the Red Woman?’
Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth): Because Jon [Snow] wouldn’t let Davos kill’em. … I think Davos realized that it would just be a revenge. As we know that death penalty is fucking stupid, ignorant and self-serving it doesn’t bring anybody back. Society really shouldn’t have a death penalty because society shouldn’t behave like that. If you say it’s okay for society to kill people then it’s okay for people to kill people. Fucking makes sense to me. So I think in this particular situation, Jon kind of goes, ‘No we can’t do that.’ She saved his life, she’s done some good things but we can’t have a person that behaves like that around here, so … get them banished.
‘There’s a theory that Bran Stark is actually Bran the Builder, what do you think about that?’
Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark): I’m not entirely convinced by that theory. The theory I’m subscribed to is that Bran in the future is kinda being in this sort of pre-determined, deterministic, no free-will paradox that older Bran, as the three-eyed raven, was coming into young Bran’s dreams to guide him to become the three-eyed raven, so that he could go back, and so-on-and-so-forth. Like that scene that Bran was about to shoot the raven, and Jojen said ‘You can’t shoot the raven because the raven is you.’ Well that’s true, that Bran has to follow this path of destiny in order for the world to be as it has to be. I think the Bran the Builder theory requires too much playing fast and loose with time. It’ll get a bit too confusing. It already doesn’t make sense, like the Hodor paradox. I still can’t get my head around it exactly how that works.
Season 7 trailer
