Westeros

After dealing with a knight and a dead almost-king, with all their courtly eccentricities, I decided it was high time for a dose of less noble chatting; hence, Podrick Payne. Squire extraordinaire, brothel cruising legend and so-so horse rider, Daniel Portman’s Pod has won the favor of the fans thanks to his humility, devotion and courage, traits which make him a most rare Westerosi bird indeed. Even non-squires such as you and I can empathize with him at some level (not necessarily about the brothels.)

Daniel Portman may share some traits with young Payne. As opposed to Finn Jones and Gethin Anthony’s more openly extrovert demeanor, the Glasgowite looks more serious and contained. Ultimately, he is a most polite and straightforward lad who just seems a bit overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Con. Welcome to my world, Pod!

MARINO: Hi Daniel, thank you for taking these questions.

Gethin sounded like Renly but looked like a normal guy. A normal, very handsome, guy, that is. His hairstyle was way cooler than in the series, IMHO, and the many girls queuing in front of me seemed to agree and approve the whole package, judging by the pretty heavy swooning and giggling. Such was the presence of the late Renly Baratheon, First (and Last) of His Name!

The man did seem to be having a good time: he smiled and laughed profusely, shook hands a-plenty, spoke cheerfully and had nice words for all and each fan, all while deftly personalizing the items people offered him. And he still found the time for posing for more selfies per minute than the World Health Organization would recommend.

When my turn was about to come, I felt I might squee a little, but I managed to contain any inadmissible sounds within my vocal apparatus. Gethin stood up to greeted me (so nice of him; 100 points to House Baratheon) after washing his hands clean with some sort of magickal elixir. His grip was strong, as one would expect from a king wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

Interview

Marino: Hello Gethin!

Marino: Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me.

Just like his alter ego, the Knight of Flowers, Finn Jones is a very passionate, energetic individual.

Understandably, the fans are really pleased with his enthusiasm; he does get carried away while chatting, and I could hear him utter the “F-word” more than once (tee-hee!) His slender frame and that mop of quasi-alive curly blondish hair are quite striking, even more so with him sitting close to the mighty Kristian Nairn.

When my turn comes, Finn’s hand darts towards mine and shakes it effusively. A quick smile. Bright eyes. It shows today’s just the first day of the Con. I check my recording device (or “Phone”, as I am fond of calling it), like this:

Interview

Marino: OK, let’s try this… Hello?

Finn stretches his body from the other side of the table and with the grace of a shadowcat starts throwing words at the device.

“Man, he speaks fast,” I find myself thinking. I wish the few thousand people around would lowered their voices a few decibels, but since it seems unlikely, I ready my ears and buckle up to fight Ser Loras Tyrell in the merciless arena of light-speed-interviewing.

Marino: Finn, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. We didn’t get to see much of you last season, but Loras is in a difficult place right now with his wedding looming on the horizon and all the politicking. How is he faring?

Well-met, fellow ASOIAFers and AGOTers! This is Marino Santirso-Dayne, the Pale Dornishman, straight from Northern Spain. Pleased to meet you all!

It has been my pleasure and distinct privilege to attend the London Film and Comic Con 2014 in, well, London, as a proud herald of this most excellent site in order to have a chat with some of the many Game of Thrones guests invited this year. I wish I had more time to properly

... I mean, to properly engage in intimate and revealing one-to-ones while sipping Earl Grey, but imagine if you would an event with thousands upon thousands of attendees all looking forward to meeting their idols; it turns out it’s quite an ordeal to secure a few minutes with the guests, and once at the venue, the prospect of carrying a bone china tea set, however tempting, became much less appealing and practical than when I was daydreaming in my couch.

With a number of fellow fans asking us to discuss the casting news from San Diego Comic-con, Linda and I have gone ahead and recorded a brand new Youtube video discussing just that. Note that it contains some spoilers for A Feast for Crows, and minor spoilers for A Dance with Dragons:

For more of our videos, see our Youtube channel. And yes, we’re planning at least a couple of more videos—we say as much in the video—but if there’s any other topics people are keen on hearing our thoughts on, do say in the comments!

Concluding our interviews from February, I had the chance to meet and talk with Isaac Hempstead-Wright—the adorable Bran Stark, who I had last met years ago during the first season filming—and Thomas Brodie-Sangster whose portrayal of Jojen Reed has been a study in maturity and understated performance.

When Isaac saw me, his genuine pleasure at meeting again reminded me of the cheerful, enthusiastic child I’d met years earlier. He’s grown up in a lot of ways—I remarked that Kristian Nairn has mentioned how glad he is that he hasn’t had to carry Isaac on his back any longer thanks to that!—and he (and Thomas) both gave some very thoughtful answers to the questions posed.

Interview

So, what can you say of any visions you have this season?

In the books, Jojen knows the date of his death and what happens to him. Is this something present in the show?

This past February, I had the opportunity to interview a number of actors in London. One of the ones I was most eager to meet—because she had been rather difficult to get an interview with previously!—was Sibel Kekilli, who plays Shae. Although given the early date of the interview it was difficult to approach anything discussing her big turn this season, it was a good chance to catch up with the actress.

An award-winner in her native Germany for her powerful work in films such as Head-On and When We Leave, Kekilli proves to be a very enthusiastic interview subject—a lot of exclaimations, a lot of smiles, and not a little laughter.

Interview

What was it like, when you first got involved in Game of Thrones?

Continuing our interview series—this is the first of several we’ll release in the run up to the final episode of season 4—I had the pleasure of speaking to Liam Cunningham (who I’d interviewed back in Season 2) and Carice van Houten (brand new interview subject!) regarding season 4. Both were charming, as expected, and had great fun talking back and forth as they answered questions regarding their fondest memories, their weirdest scenes, and more.

Interview

Carice, we know Liam prefers to learn the story through the scripts and was advised by the producers that he didn’t need to read the books. Do you feel the same about it?

How would you describe the journeys of your character?

One of the actors who has been most elusive among the regular cast has been Aidan Gillen. We’ve hoped to interview him for a number of years, but could never make it work… until, that is, earlier this year when I traveled to London to take part in a round of interviews with Gillen, as well as a number of actors.

I recall back when the show was announced that all sorts of names flew about for various roles, but Gillen’s name was easily the most common fan suggestion for Petyr Baelish. Those suggestions were largely based on his role as Carcetti in HBO’s groundbreaking The Wire, I suspect, but I admit at the time I hadn’t gotten past the show’s first season so didn’t know him from there. But we here at Westeros.org also latched onto the name when it was suggested, because of his charming, fearless, devilish performance as Stuart Russel T. Davies’s Queer as Folk.

With many notable roles under his belt, in film, television, and theater, the Dublin-born actor proves a very knowledgeable, extremely thoughtful interview subject. He takes his time with all his responses, thinking them through. And, as you’ll see, he’s more familiar than most of the actors with the source material….

Interview

Without being too spoilery, what sort of character does Littlefinger takes this season?

How much do you know about what lies ahead for your character? You’ve read the books, I know, but do you know what lies beyond that?

With Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Bryan Cogman’s been the member of the Game of Thrones production we’ve had most opportunities to interview, and as always it’s been a pleasure as we range around various behind-the-scenes aspects of the production, as well as some in-depth discussion of Bryan’s work as a writer for this season in regards to “Oathkeeper” and “The Laws of Gods and Men”>.  See below for the full interview, as we discuss filming in Iceland, the growth of the scale of the production since the early days, who Bryan’s idol is, and more!

Interview

All right, welcome back to what’s turning into an annual chat, Bryan. I think Nikolaj’s the only person we’ve interviewed as often at this point.

Hah. As I recall, this season included your first trip to Iceland for filming—usually none of your material was shot there, is that right?

Iceland really looks stunning. This time around the shooting was in the summer. Lots of sunlight, relatively warm weather?

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to interview a number of actors in London. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has been our most frequently interviewed actor, I believe—he’s always been quite game to talk to us!—but they’ve always been just with him. This time around, Gwendoline Christie joined him, and I finally got to see at first hand what the show is like as the two actors spark off one another, sending zingers one another’s way with much laughter. And sometimes the zingers aren’t just directed at one another, as you’ll see below ...

Interview

Nikolaj, since we spoke last year we’ve seen that your character has become more human and likable. Do you feel that progression continues this season?

In past seasons of Game of Thrones, we’ve posted impressions based on the screeners we received from HBO. This year, we’ve decided to change things up a bit, however, by turning to our Youtube channel to discuss some very early thoughts—not a review, thoughts!—on the first three episodes of the upcoming fourth season. You can find that video below:

Last month, I had the opportunity to sit down with a number of the actors involved in Game of Thrones, to talk about the journey so far, and perhaps to draw out a few hints about what’s to come. First up in this interview series—leading up to and into the next season—I had the pleasure to talk with Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) and Rory McCann (Sandor Clegane), the latter of whom I’ve never had the pleasure of interviewing before. We have a chance to talk the joys of Vine, the pleasures of Iceland, and how their characters get along as season 4 commences.

Interview

Maisie, many people have mentioned you as a very impressive actress. Do you have any method you use, or have you just picked things up since you started the show?

How does it feel not to get to act with Sophie?

That Game of Thrones is a global phenomenon is without a doubt. It appears in scores of foreign markets, has events around the world where actors are eagerly sought after as guests, and the fan base reaches to some of the remotest places in the world. So it’s no surprise that the exhibitions of the show’s props and costumes have ranged widely, across both hemispheres. Usually, these have been specifically tied to promoting the TV show, but in at least one case they have been used for quite a different purpose: educational. At Stockholm’s Royal Armory, Sweden’s oldest museum and part of the royal palace complex (which happens to be one of the largest royal palaces still in use as a royal residence), a new exhibition titled Power Games (Maktspel) was launched last week exploring depictions of power in television and cinema. Set alongside costumes and artifacts from Sweden’s 16th century were costumes from the films Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age as well as Game of Thrones.

Linda and I were invited by the armory to take part, and so off to beautiful Stockholm we went! Given early admittance, we had the Iron Throne to ourselves for awhile. Besides the opportunity to take a shot on the Iron Throne, the exhibit features a terrific array of costumes. The gowns from Elizabeth are, suffice it to say, truly amazing… but a major part of the focus is on Game of Thrones, and with the help of HBO Nordic the museum delivers. Eleven costumes from show, as well as props, make their appearance, beginning with a look at one of Cersei’s gowns and Joffrey’s outfits.