The story of Daniel Wiffen: From an extra on Game of Thrones to an Olympic Swimmer

If we take a look around, there are a lot of people with inspirational stories we can learn from. One Game of Thrones extra, Daniel Wiffen, has turned his life around, thanks to a sibling rivalry, and is taking part in the Tokyo Olympics as a part of Ireland’s national swimming team. Daniel and his brother Nathan took part in Game of Thrones as extras while filming the infamous Red Wedding scene.

Daniel and Nathan Wiffen were introduced to swimming after their older brother Ben took up the sport. It’s worked out well. Daniel will swim for Ireland in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle here in Tokyo while Nathan sliced five seconds off his PB in the 200m backstroke at the Swim Ireland at the National Aquatic Centre last month.

The twins were really excited when they joined as an extra in Game of Thrones. Wiffen said, “When I was younger, yeah. I’ve been in Game of Thrones, an extra in the background of the Red Wedding. Jon Snow, all the main actors, were there and they were all so nice as well. Acting is big for twins when they’re younger. I was loving every minute of it.”

Do you have any such inspirational stories to share? Talk to us in the comments below!

In today’s fast pacing world, we rarely make time for our family, let alone save some time for ourselves. Humanity is slowly losing touch with its emotions. This often leads to mental illnesses of one form another. Filming a show as big as Game of Thrones can be quite intense for its cast and crew. And it took a severe toll on the show’s star Kit Harington’s mental health. He recently opened up about how he dealt with them on The Jess Cagle Show.

Harington said, “I went through, kind of, some mental health difficulties after Thrones and during the end of Thrones, to be honest. And I think it was directly to do with the nature of the show and what I’ve been doing for years.”

“I think I took, sort of, a break after Thrones where, so, I don’t want to work for a year [and] I want to really kind of concentrate on myself. I think I’m really happy I did that.”

While Kit didn’t open up about his time in treatment, he did say that his break from acting helped him be more considerate about the roles he takes, like his upcoming appearance on Modern Love. He said, “Coming back to work and deciding what to take, what to choose…doing this Modern Love episode was a bit like, ‘You don’t have to live in that intense place all the time. Why don’t you do something that takes the weight off? Why don’t you do something fun?’ And that was part of my thinking on this one.”

What do you think about Kit Harington’s emotional issues? Tell us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa is one of the most down-to-earth actors in the filmmaking industry. He is known to be great friends with a number of other celebrities, and his jolly attitude with his fans makes him really lovable. Momoa once admitted how he fangirled over Liam Neeson and Al Pacino when he was new to Hollywood. He nearly creeped them out on their first encounter! Momoa’s highly anticipated upcoming movie is right around the corner, and he absolutely adores his Dune co-stars, especially Oscar Isaac.

In an interview with Men’s Journal, Momoa revealed, “To work with Javier on this epic film and also with Josh Brolin—I love Brolin! And Rebecca Ferguson killed it, and Oscar Isaac is my new man-crush. I’m just so pumped for the world to see it.”

“The coolest thing about my character is that he’s the Han Solo—the swashbuckling rebel who stirs the pot. And he’s really close to Timmy’s (Timothee Chalamet) character.”

“My preparation was more about spending time with Denny and spending time in my imagination to find those places in myself where I could play Idaho’s character.”

Are you excited about the upcoming sci-fi fantasy Dune? Tell us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones is one of the biggest shows in the history of television film-making. One of the many reasons why the show is so hugely popular is that though the story is largely a fantasy, many of its elements are grounded in reality. That even goes as far as designing the props for the show. Recently in his podcast, The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, House of The Dragon co-showrunner Ryan Condal talked about designing practical and believable Valyrian Steel swords for both shows.

He said, “There’s a specificity to the design of everything you’ve done…There is a practicality, a functionality to everything that you do. And that’s not to say that everything isn’t gorgeous, it is…We talked about this a bit when we started working together, about the difference between a really interestingly designed beautiful sword and a piece from a Renaissance Faire…It’s the valley between design and functionality and sometimes it goes a bit too far in moviemaking.”

“I think the trick with what you do is to always walk that line so when the character is holding something it’s credible. Our world is obviously a fantasy world but the reason Thrones works so well is because it’s very grounded in reality and it’s supposed to feel real and dangerous and these are real people and this just happens to be the world they walk around in and it has dragons and magic and all these other things.”

What do you think about the design of swords in Game of Thrones? Tell us in the comments below!

 

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