Gemma Whelan feels Game of Thrones changed the way women are represented on-screen

April 18th, 3:52pm April 20th, 1:09am Abhijeet SinghWriter, Actor, Teacher – a Game of Thrones enthusiast in there somewhere!

Game of Thrones was a show that changed the TV landscape forever, not just for HBO but for everybody. The scale, the production, and the extensive storyline made it a giant never really seen before. Many TV shows like Westworld that came after the start of the HBO hit series accept that it has made difficult things possible for them now. One of the many fronts through which this impact came ahead was its characters. An ensemble of equally complex male and female roles allowed variety and range. As a further development, Game of Thrones star Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy) feels the show changed the way women are seen and represented on-screen.

According to Insider, Gemma talked about the effect Game of Thrones had on female roles in the industry in an interview with Radio Times. The actress who played a fearless, unconventional woman herself on GoT has seen a marked change in the kind of scripts she received after the show released. “When I started out, I wasn’t really woke to the idea of female roles being big, small or whatever. I was just grateful to get work,” she said.

The show didn’t hold back in terms of boldness on screen, whether it’s violence, language, sex, or nudity. It pushed every character, male or female, off the edge since the premise allowed only the survival of the fittest in a world full of power-hungry people. “Game of Thrones really did change things in terms of how women are written and represented. Obviously, it was a fantasy, but the women were painted very realistically nonetheless. Maybe not the murdering side of things, but they were independent and capable of running the show”; Gemma further explained her point.

It’s no surprise then that we see a lot more content lately that’s led by female characters. That’s a primal change Gemma believes has taken place. “Nowadays, a huge part of the writing process is making women front and center,” she said. However, she added that it is not a polar shift, rather a favorable balance of things which were earlier male-dominated. “But that’s not to say that we should forget there are some brilliant male-led things out there, like Succession. There’s space for all of us,” she concluded.

Gemma Whelan has joined the BBC comedy-drama spy thriller series, Killing Eve in its third season as Geraldine. She had earlier shared her excitement about the show and her role opposite acclaimed actress, Fiona Shaw. The first episode of Killing Eve’s season 3 premiered on April 12, 2020, and it’s receiving rave reviews.

What do you guys think? Have you seen a change in the kind of roles women play on screen? Tell us in the comments below.

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