Actor Roger Ashton-Griffiths talks about his time on Game of Thrones as Mace Tyrell

The Lord of Highgarden and father of the devious Queen Margaery- Mace Tyrell, was quite the character on Game of Thrones, who fell into his doom when Cersei Lannister’s wildfire explosion destroyed a chunk of King’s Landing. Though Mace Tyrell did not leave as much of an impact on the viewers, he did get his time in the limelight in season 6. And the veteran actor who portrayed him, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, recently spoke about Game of Thrones and his character’s time on the show, during an interview with ComiConverse.

He talked about his time on Game of Thrones compared to other shows.

“The details vary, of course, depending on things like budget, location, colleagues and so on, but the basics of learning lines, wearing costumes and forming a character remain broadly the same. On the one hand, therefore, being in Game of Thrones is like being in anything else. But on the other, the locations, writing, costumes, cast and crew are all absolutely first rate, without exception, and it is this unique combination of resource, intention and ability which makes Game of Thrones stand apart from other productions I have known.”

He also mentioned something rather unnoticeable about Mace, and how he had a lack of communication with his own two children and other members of his family.

“Mace had surprisingly little to do with his children, as a matter of fact,” he said. “There were public events when we were on screen together – weddings, parties, deaths – but no intimate domestic scenes. The three of us worked most closely during our final scene together in the Sept. There was never any sense, of course, in which my character was supposed to resemble either of theirs! Diana [Rigg (Olenna Tyrell)] and I spent a day shooting a two-hander in an enclosed sedan chair, which was a great treat for me as I’ve followed her work all my life – but I think it was cut from the episode. Grrr!”

Griffiths then talked about Mace’s final moments. “David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] are exceptional showrunners in many ways, and one of those is that they take the time to call every cast member whose end is written in the new season, before shooting begins. As a result, we all knew we were doomed even before the scripts arrived. I was pleased that we went together, as Mace would have been distraught had he outlived his children, and the manner of our departure was novel, so I was as happy as I could have been.”

He later looked back on his time on Game of Thrones, and revealed where he thinks he enjoyed the most during filming. He said, “I enjoyed being in Girona particularly, but I said the same about Split the year before, and Dubrovnik the year before that.”

Though Griffiths did say that picking a favourite memory is hard, which is quite understandable based on the fact that Game of Thrones probably gave a few too many memorable moments to the actors.

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