Gwendoline Christie (Brienne) and Kristian Nairn (Hodor) recall their Game of Thrones auditions

Game of Thrones ended more than one and a half years ago. It was a beautiful journey for both the fans and the crew that lasted for a decade. The fantastical series still holds the record for the most number of Emmy Awards won. On the occasion of New Year, the cast of the show came together for an interview with Digital Spy. They shared their experience while shooting for the fantasy epic. Gwendoline Christie (Brienne) and Kristian Nairn (Hodor) talked about how they were cast for their roles.

Gwendoline recalled, “I immediately rang my agent and said, ‘I want to do this’. My agent said, ‘What are you talking about? I’d never ever put you up for this. She’s ugly, her nose is broken, her teeth are broken and you’ll need to use a sword’.”

Nairn remembered, “I was a first-time actor. I was glad I didn’t know anything about the show at the time. Because if I had I would’ve realised what a huge audition I was going for. I had no idea what Game of Thrones was. I had auditioned for a part in another movie called Hot Fuzz, and I didn’t get the part. It was the casting director Nina Gold who remembered me – she called me in for this audition. I didn’t know it at the time, but when you’re called for an audition, that’s really in your favour.”

What are your best memories from the show? Talk to us in the comments below!

There are roles an actor plays that define them for the rest of their lives. The character becomes a part of their identity. There are many examples from the fantasy epic Game of Thrones; some of the actors have even grown up with their characters. Liam Cunningham, better known in the Game of Thrones world as Ser Davos Seaworth, had initially rejected the offer to be on the show. Now, the fans can’t even imagine anyone else playing the role so perfectly. In an interview with the Sunday World, the veteran actor told how he almost missed out on the opportunity.

“When I was first contacted about being on Game of Thrones, I said very quickly that I was not interested,” he reveals. “Then I read the script, I realised it was a story of power, legacy and paranoia, with the fantasy and dragons just a powerful backdrop for a fantastic drama. It was great to play Davos for as long as I did. I really liked him and the quality of the writing on the show was fantastic. I loved playing the role, but all good things come to an end.”

Offers have been flowing in for Cunningham since he shot his last scene on Game of Thrones. The most recent being Sky Atlantic’s epic new show Domina.

Would you have liked to see any other actor playing the role of Ser Davos Seaworth? Talk to us in the comments below!

Ser Davos Seaworth rose from the depths of the Flea Bottom to become the Master of Ships by the end of Season 8. His journey was an arduous one, along which he lost his fingers, his family, and the one person he was closest to, Shireen Baratheon. Davos may not have led a privileged life on Game of Thrones, but actor Liam Cunningham will get a chance to play a royal character in his new show. The eight-episode series stars Kasia Smutniak (Perfect Strangers) as Livia, supported by an international cast including Cunningham, who plays Livius. Cunningham recently talked to The Sunday World about his new role in ancient Rome epic Domina.

He said, “What grabbed my attention was the idea that this is a story about Ancient Rome, but it’s told from the perspective of the women, which is incredibly interesting. There were some very powerful women in this period of history and for them to have secured power when they weren’t really supposed to have power meant they were really clever and interesting characters.”

“So I really liked the idea, before I saw the script, and then when I read the script… I mean, Ancient Rome is so interesting. It’s the old cliché, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and there are many occasions in history where we see that happen and it will happen again. People don’t seem to learn.

“Rome is a constant gift that keeps on giving, but I think what’s interesting is that people today need to pay more attention to history because it was an empire that collapsed – which they usually do.”

He recently said that history will be kind to Game of Thrones ending. What do you think about Cunningham’s new show? Tell us in the comments below!

Gasping for breath, drowning in water is one of the most common nightmares people experience in their dreams. One Game of Thrones actress had to go through that in real, on set, for an excruciating 10 hours. Hannah Waddingham, who played Septa Unella on the show, was strapped to a table, to be tortured by Lena Headey’s Cersei Lannister. She described her harrowing experience in a recent episode of Collider’s Ladies Night.

She explained, “Definitely, other than childbirth, it was the worst day of my life. Because Lena was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself. But in those moments you have to think, do you serve the piece and get on with it or do you chicken out and go, ‘No, this isn’t what I signed up for, blah, blah, blah?’”

“The funny thing was, after we’d finished shooting it for the whole day, and people like Miguel Sapochnik, the director by the way, walking past with a cup of tea and a sandwich on-the-go and going, ‘Hi hunny, you alright?’ And I was like, ‘Not really.’ ‘The crew have just been saying we are actually really waterboarding you here.’ And I was like, ‘Yup, you don’t need to tell me that!’”

Waddingham continued, “When I got back to the hotel that night, I was going up in the left and I was standing next to Eugene (Lancel Lannister) who had had to crawl through loads of sh*t to get out of the Sept of Baylor and he was like, ‘Oh my god, what happened to you today?’ I could barely speak because I had been screaming through The Mountain’s hand, which is quite frightening as a singer to completely lose your voice, so I had no voice at all to barely whisper, bruises already coming up like I had been attacked”

“I was like, ‘I’ve basically just been waterboarded for ten hours.’ And he went, ‘Mate, I’ve just been crawling through sh*t for four days on my elbows.’ So we were like, ‘See? You haven’t been in Game of Thrones unless you’ve been really, really, battered around.’”

Have you ever been through a similar experience? Tell us in the comments below!

 

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