Interview
Andrew McClay (Aberdolf Strongbeard) recalls funny behind-the-scene moments from Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones tells the story of a dark, twisted, and war-torn world very much like medieval times, but it did mix some humor intertwined within the interactions between various characters. However, no matter how serious the situation looked on-screen, the cast always seemed to have fun on the set, the Game of Thrones blooper reels are a testament to that. There are some facts fans didn’t know about, until now, when the most famous extra of the show, Andrew McClay, agreed for a live Instagram session with Game of Laughs. And he revealed a lot of previously unknown secrets.
McClay, who played Aberdolf Strongbeard, recalls one such fun moment from the Battle of Hardhome, “So I went down to have a look. And the crew was running around at Hardhome, and there’s this one guy lying down, just the edge of the water. He was just lying there, shaking. You know with his face down on the ground. And there were people running over to him like, “Oh are you okay man? Are you okay?” And he just looked up and was all, “Leave me alone. I’m acting.” Shooting the battles themselves was just amazing.”
He also remembered how the extras would purposefully ram into each other in the heat of the battle, because “Jon Snow needed them”. He said:
“We were like fuc*ing crazy, you know what I mean. They [directors] were like “you guys are over here, you guys are wights, you guys are alive. Now run with each other but don’t hurt each other” and we were like fu*k let’s run at each other, bashing at each other, it was absolutely brilliant. And a couple of injuries but I didn’t care, you know, fu*k it man, Jon Snow needed me. So I didn’t really care. The battles were probably my favorite part of shooting the show.”
“I mean, like everyday shooting, it was absolutely brilliant. You know, the scenes at Winterfell, and pretend there’s dragons flying overhead. I remember running through King’s Landing and the whole place was on fire. It was absolutely brilliant.”
McClay sure had the best time of his life on Game of Thrones. What do you think? Talk to us in the comments below!
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