Westeros

Last night, the official Game of Thrones Twitter account reminded us that Emilia Clarke would be appearing on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live late night show, and as is their wont, the talk show has made the appearance available on Youtube. Listen to Emilia discuss getting quite literally stuck on the toliet while filming a particularly sticky scene, and the time she was punched in Vietnam under rather curious circustmances:

New cast member Iwan Rheon, whose casting confirmation we reported on awhile back, and whose role (“BOY”) has been the subject of a lot of well-founded speculation, was interviewed by the always-excellent Red Carpet News regarding his experience filming on the show and just who he worked with.

(Watch the interviewer rather cheekily taking a stab at Rheon’s character’s identity with his opening question):

(Thanks to CoolOff on the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum for bringing the interview to our attention.)

GQ.com has declared “Blackwater”—the George R.R. Martin-pennied, Neil Marshall-directed penultimate episode of season 2—the “Year’s Best Television Episode”.

It’s hard to make an argument against that (though Matt Weiner and Vince Gilligan can surely make them), but the honor does come with a very nice “oral history” of the episode, from its conception to completion, as told by executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, as well as GRRM and Marshall. Some interesting details along the way, and it’s well worth reading.

However, we can say that one detail in the article seems to be an error—or, at least, was not sourced from the participants. Writer Brian Rafferty writes toward the end that “Martin is halfway” through the sixth novel. We contacted Martin’s office about this detail, to verify it, and have been informed that GRRM made no such statement. It may have been a misunderstanding or a mistaken assumption, but in any case, GRRM has not stated that he is “halfway” done with The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.

Known as Samwell Tarly on the show, John Bradley is among a troop of young actors who’ve landed a role in one of the biggest television productions ever seen in Europe.

We had the opportunity to interview him concerning his budding career, his approach to acting, and his landing and playing the role of Jon Snow’ss best friend on the Wall. A gifted young actor practically fresh out of drama school, at the same time that he landed a significant role in Game of Thrones, he’s also playing a part in in Canal+‘s Borgia, in the role of Giovanni de Medici, and we’ll discuss some of his experiences there as well.

Read the interview!