Westeros

Tommy Dunne is the weapon master for Game of Thrones, meaning that he’s overseen the conception, design, and production of the many, many weapons used in the production. The total number of weapons has gone into the hundreds, we’ve been told, and all that thanks to Mr. Dunne and his team.

His career in television and film production was not something he really planned for, but began (tellingly enough) with a little film named Braveheart. From there, Dunne has gone on to work in some pretty remarkable productions. Just a short list: Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, V for Vendetta, and both Band of Brothers and The Pacific. He’s certainly no stranger to high-end productions, nor is he a stranger to working HBO. Read below to discover how he got his start, the influences behind some of the weapon designs, and the surprise he got when it came to creating the swords of the white walkers.

The role of Lord Renly Baratheon was one that many fans were interested in seeing cast. Filling the role is Gethin Anthony, who brings his talents to bear on a character whose role in this season culminates in a crucial decision . . . and who may well go on to become one of the chief players of the game of thrones if a second season is commissioned. Below is our interview with the actor, discussing his early career, the auditioning process, his views on Renly and Renly’s family, and more.

We know you read English at Oxford, but you also performed some theater there. Was that part of your education or was that extra-curricular?

I studied English Language and Literature for my B.A., but there’s a great theater scene in Oxford—there’s a lot of theaters there—as well as a burgeoning short film scene as well. There’s a lot of people interested in it, and because it’s not actually a course at Oxford, you do it as an extra-curricular thing. There were quite a few societies and organizations there—the Oxford University Drama Society, the Experimental Theater Company, a great company called Crackhorse Productions as well to name a few—who were putting on plays and being very fortunate and privileged to have the space, the resources, and support to do it. We were supported by people like Thelma Holt, who’s a big producer here, and Cameron Mackintosh, who give up their time and money to help students put on their productions. It was a big part of my life while I was there?

One of the people I met when I visited Belfast was John Bradley, the actor playing Samwell Tarly. He was one of the actors we had discovered had been cast via a mention out in the wilds of the web (in fact, it was the website of his drama school), and then somewhere along the way he was on Twitter and was just rather hilarious with his acerbic, self-effacing observations. I remember asking him at Belfast if he was really like that in “real life”, after noticing that he seemed rather reserved at the party, and he admitted that Twitter was sort of a “release valve.”

Since graduating drama school, he’s landed a quick one-two punch of notable roles: not just Samwell, but also Giovanni de Medici in Canal+‘s Borgia. Below, you can read about his education as an actor, his views on how to approach a character, his particular talents, and what happened when he had his callback audition and was reduced to a pale, sweating mess after the train failed to run on time…