Indira Varma confirms that Ellaria Sand won't be coming back to Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 3 aired today, and it was some of the best 63 minutes we have watched. One of the most striking things that happened in this episode, had to do with the Dornish, Ellaria Sand, and her daughter, Tyene Sand. As we saw in the second episode of Season 7, Stormborn, the two were captured by Euron Greyjoy, and in the latest episode we saw him hand them over to Cersei Lannister, who delivered her some poetic justice, for having murdered her daughter, Myrcella. Indira Varma, who plays the role of Ellaria Sand, talked toEWabout the scene, and how this was her final appearance on Game of Thrones. Read on!

Speaking about the scene, she said :

“It’s really dark. What I love about this scene is you’re reading it and from one sentence to the next you don’t know what’s going to happen — how Cersei is going to treat her victim. I just thought the delivery of that information was so clever. Especially since the kiss comes before the information.”

She went on to explain how it was to actually film the scene :

“It was hard work. A lot of blood snot and sweat and tears. Myself and Rosabell had to be shackled. They very kindly put some felt inside the handcuffs so we didn’t get bruised and battered — though we ended up doing that anyway because your acting takes over. The shackles kept coming off so they had to tighten them and then we couldn’t get them off at all. At the end of the day I was like, “I’m stuck! I need somebody to help me!” and they had to cut me out of them. All in a day’s work.”

Explaining a bit of the idea behind the scene, Indira said :

“Ellaria hasn’t had quite the screen time so people are inevitably more invested in Cersei. But people were so in love with Oberyn [Pedro Pascal] and there’s a bit of that residue carrying on, and obviously, nobody wants to see somebody’s child killed in front of them — that’s every parent’s worst nightmare, beyond worst nightmare. It’s quite a challenge from an acting perspective to be interesting with no lines. It was fun trying to play anger resentment and impotence in that situation, but still wanting to fight. At what point do you give up wanting to fight? It’s a human paternal instinct where you just want to keep fighting for your child.”

She was asked how she first found out about her character’s death. Indira said :

“[Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] called me, but I kind of knew already. Obviously there’s lots of trimming going on. It’s all coming to a head and you have to get rid of less important characters that the audience hasn’t had the chance to invest in as much. So I was expecting it. I wasn’t heartbroken. And I was like, “As long as I die on screen…” and they were like “Yeah!” But of course I don’t die on screen. I stay alive, I’m just not going to reappear. I think it’s really clever.”

She also talked about her favourite scene, how it was fun to work with Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell), and what she’s going to do now, as her run on Game of Thrones is over, so go read the full interview, over here. What has been your favourite Ellaria Sand moment? Talk to us in the comments, down below!