Westeros

Having had a chance to watch Game of Thrones: The Mad King last month, afterwards I went out and visited with the actors as they left at the stage door at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. One of the actors I met and had a wonderful conversation with was Michael Shaeffer, who played the titular Mad King, Aerys II.

He very kindly agreed to sit for an interview to discuss the play, his thoughts on Aerys, and more, The interview was conducted a couple of weeks ago, well before the official announcement that the play would be moving to London in 2027. It has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Elio Garcia: This was the first play I had ever attended. I have read Shakespeare, but reading Shakespeare is not really how you are supposed to experience it, and I had not realized how magical and immersive live performance could be. How does acting onstage differ from acting for the screen? What is different about the energy?

Michael Shaeffer: Very, very different. In the theatre, everything is different every night, and there is a physicality that you have to bring to it. Especially with The Mad King, it is a kind of muscular thing: nearly four hours of quite full-on effort. Everything matters in this world. There are very few casual, “Hey, how are you doing?” moments. It is life-and-death stuff all the time, and that has a demand to it. It requires you to pull yourself up to it.

You really have to get ready for it; you cannot just wander on. We all turn up two hours before the show begins to start warming up, and it takes that time to reach the level we need to deliver it in the way it needs to be delivered—and to deliver it safely. We go through the safety work every night.

Then there is the audience. Audiences react differently every night; some are more vocally responsive than others. But with this show, every night the audience has been with us. You know when an audience is not with you: you can feel and hear it, and people begin to shuffle and become uncomfortable. In spite of this being a fairly lengthy show, people stay with us. You can hear a pin drop all the way through to the end. People are right there with us, which is wonderful.

That connection with the audience is the thing you do not get in front of a camera. When you are filming, you do your thing and never quite know: was that all right? You have to trust that the director will tell you if they want something different. In a theatre, you feel it. The audience tells you. There is a constant feedback loop, and when you have done a lot of theatre your antennae become attuned to whether it is working. It is a magical thing. I love it. I really do.

[Editor’s note: Quotations have been lightly edited for concision and clarity.]

Tyler Jacobson, one of the leading illustrators in contemporary fantasy art and illustration, is best known for his work on Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons—including standard covers for major Dungeons & Dragons core books, and a particularly famous piece for Magic: The Gathering that was a D & D crossover featuring Drizzt Do’Urden that sold at auction for $155,000, one of the highest M: TG original art sales on record —he brings more than a decade of experience in both traditional and digital illustration to the project, winning plaudits including recognition such as the prestigious Spectrum and Jack Gaughan awards.

He is now the latest notable artist to get involved in the long-running A Song of Ice and Fire calendar series, joining the likes of Ted Nasmith, Magali Villenueve, Gary Gianni, John Picacio, Sam Hogg, Arantza Sestayo, and many more. I had the pleasure of interviewing him just before he was set to travel to Amsterdam,  the host of this year’s MagicCon, to discuss the 2027 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar which is set to be released on July 21st (you can pre-order here. Not only do we discuss five of the pieces, including an exclusive piece never seen before, but he reveals just a bit about a couple of other of the pieces fans can look forward to.

Daenerys Targaryen with Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion. Art by Tyler Jacobson.

An interview long in the making, we finally got to sit down with Ryan Condal, lead writer, executive producer, and now sole show runner of House of the Dragon last week to talk about the show. After Linda had a chance to say hello, she headed off to keep an eye on our very rambunctious puppy Lancelot, we started the interview. We open up with a question on post-production, and then get into the weeds on favorite book characters, depictions of violence, heraldry, a forgotten Valyrian house, the change from book canon when casting the Velaryons, whether Ryan will continue with the show after completing this particular story, and more.

Ryan Condal behind the scenes with a maquette of Caraxes. ©️ Ollie Upton/HBO

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?

It’s always a pleasure to interview writer and story editor Bryan Cogman, who has so far written an episode of each season, including what are amounting to two of our personal favorites of the series: “What is Dead May Never Die” and his season three episode, “Kissed by Fire”.

Below, I talk with Bryan about the episode, the introduction of new characters, his proudest moments, and much more. It’s a lengthy one but, we hope, a good one. Enjoy!

Interview

All right, thanks so much for taking the time, first off!

Now, often episodes seem to have their titles decided at the last minute—George’s episode went through a couple of different names before it was settled. Was “Kissed by Fire” always the title you preferred for your episode?

Continuing our interview series, next up is actress Rose Leslie, who had a memorable turn as Ygritte last season.

In this interview, she gives some hints about things to come, discusses just how often Kit Harington smiles, and much more. I note one place where she laughs… but truth be told, she laughs often and was clearly enjoying herself immensely at being involved in a project like Game of Thrones.

Interview

What can you tell us about season 3?

Why is Ygritte interested in Jon Snow? What piques her interest?

Continuing our series of interviews, this time it’s Iain Glen on board. Playing Jorah Mormont, he may be rather (a lot) different from the character in the novels, but the dignity and gravity he brings to his performance is a terrific counter-point to Daenerys Targaryen’s youthful energy and determination. In the below interview, we touch on topics such as his luck in filming locations, his views on the violence in the show, and just how Jorah feels about Daenerys.

Interview

How is this season for Jorah and Dany this season?

This is the third in our series of actor interviews leading up to the premiere of Game of Thrones on March 31st (April 1st in the UK, Scandinavia, and elsewhere).

And as it happens, this is also our third interview with Nikolaj to date, and he remains as charming and entertaining as always. The interview transcript below doesn’t really go very far to indicate just how engaging he can be to talk with, and how funny. Despite the provison from HBO that details for season 3 were not really permitted to be discussed, Nikolaj provided some small suggestions about how the story may go in the course of discussing the series, his character, and the fans.

Interview

So, what can you tell us about the new season?

One of the real pleasures of the press junket this year was getting to talk to a member of the cast I’ve not met previously… and perhaps no cast member has really excited me as much as Gwendoline Christie, the imposing Brienne of Tarth.

The actress seemed practically born for this role, and she made quite an impression in her all-too-brief appearances in the second season. The third season promises to give us a lot more of the Maid of Tarth, as she travels through the dangerous, war-torn riverlands trying to deliver Jaime Lannister to King’s Landing as Catelyn Stark commanded her to do.

Interview

What can you tell us about this season of Game of Thrones?

This is the first of a series of interviews that we’ve had with actors from Game of Thrones, ahead of season 3. It was nice to say hello again to some of the actors, who are starting to become familiar faces, and also to meet some actors (both old and new) that I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting before. First up, here’s our interview with Michelle Fairley, who plays Catelyn Stark!

Interview

What can you tell us about Catelyn in season 3?

The release of Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones was a chance for fans the world over to get a closer look behind the scenes at the making of the series, thanks to the writing of series story editor and writer Bryan Cogman having penned the book, filling it with the insights he was able to take from fellow members of the production team and the cast.

And now the collector’s edition has been released (Order: Amazon US, Amazon UK), and it adds an additional wrinkle: among the various bits of swag, such as the scrolled maps, is a whole second volume, this one containing storyboards from artist Will Simpson which are a key part of the process of creating and producing the series.

To explain more about the books, and what they reveal and what’s contained within, we had the opportunity to interview Bryan so that he can provide a better understanding of what fans can expect to find.

Comic Con’s done, but we managed to land an exclusive interview ... with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Ser Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones. With the help of our correspondent (and site host!) Rachel Blackman, we put together a few questions for Nikolaj during the convention. Scheduling problems made us miss the opportunity for a sit-down interview, but Nikolaj—who was taking off for Belfast on Saturday, rehearsing on Sunday, and already filming on Monday—was kind enough to answer our questions via e-mail.

To read more of Nikolaj’s thoughts on the series, be sure to visit our first season interview with the actor.

NOTE: There’s a spoiler, which we’ve hidden.

The special effects of HBO’s Game of Thrones is something that really interested many fans before production started, because of the grand epic sweep of the setting and the fact that epic fantasy on television was a tall order. It certainly captured our imaginations as well, as we considered what HBO had been able to achieve in its other shows, as well as what other television programs and VFX vendors were able to create. The end result? Some of what some imagined (and even what we tried to project) proved to be too ambitious for a show on such a tight schedule and with so many other budgetary needs to meet outside of visual effects (massive use of sets and locations, many costumes and extras, etc.)

Still, despite the fact that the battles never really transpired that some might have hoped for, there were some jaw-droppers, and those are thanks to BlueBolt, the lead VFX vendor for the series. We had the opportunity to speak with Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor, one of BlueBolt’s founders and the VFX producer for the first season of the show. We learn some surprising things along the way, with a refreshing level of frankness regarding the reality of producing VFX for a television program such as HBO.

Interview

My understanding is that BlueBolt is a pretty new company, but its founders have quite a lot of experience in VFX for film and television. What role has landing the lead vendor role on Game of Thrones played in the present and future of your company?

A gifted actor who’s lately been turning heads on both sides of the Atlantic, Harry Lloyd landed the role of Viserys Targaryen, the exiled prince yearning to restore his family to the rule of the Seven Kingdoms. As Daenerys’s brother, he has been an antagonist who’s dominated her entire life… until she marries Khal Drogo, and among the Dothraki finds independence and courage she didn’t know she had before.

In the following interview, we discuss how Lloyd prepared for his role, the question he’d most like to ask author George R.R. Martin regarding the series, and more!

Conan Stevens was one of the first actors that came to the attention of fans in association with the production, when it was simply still in development: he put out the word that he thought he’d make a fantastic Mountain that Rides.

Many months later—after a pilot was ordered, after it was considered, after a second season was green lit—he landed the part he set out to get. Below is our exclusive interview with Stevens, who discusses his early career, his views on the differences between Thai and American productions, and more.