FaBio here, recently returned from the GRRM signing at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena and the after-gathering hosted by the official ASoIaF fanclub, the Brotherhood Without Banners. I have tales of yore and wonder, of course, and they will be told very soon.
But this could be even cooler: Maureen Ryan, revered television critic for the AOL TVSquad (and @moryan on Twitter), snagged three choice interviews at the recent TVA’s: one with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, one with George R.R. Martin, and one with Emilia Clarke.
Winter and I met Mo in Pasadena on Thursday, and it came as no surprise that she was literally the coolest television critic ever. And tall. She’s very tall. The Super-Geek persona is not an act; the woman is nerdier than me, and that’s saying something. It helps that she’s addicted to ASoIaF, of course. She got to watch that 15 minute preview of GoT-y goodness along with Winter and I, and came away as geeked as anyone. Her favorite part: seeing the Wall for the first time! Mo knows ‘Thrones!
For the full set of interviews, go HERE.
And here are some choice quotes:
David Benioff:
My feeling is, if George loves the show, and if we do — and we’re as devoted to this as anyone, having spent the last five years of our lives in Westeros — our basic feeling is that if we can make George happy, we’re going to make most of his fans happy.
GRRM:
My one concern is, a lot of fans have no conception of the reality of the [entertainment] business. I think there’s a certain portion [of fans] out there — the minority, mind you, the minority, I don’t know how many — who are going to be looking at this and expecting Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings,’ regardless of the fact that the budget for ‘Lord of the Rings’ was infinitely larger than our budget, many times [larger]. They can’t expect that. I hope — and I think we will — have the best-looking fantasy series ever seen on television. But it’s not a $150 million movie. And we can’t compete with that. So the fans have to understand that.
Emilia Clarke:
All of us had a nice kind of crew together, which was lovely, and we kind of overlapped, we hung out. But then the biggest thing was that the people who I personally worked with are just the best people ever. Harry Lloyd is now my best friend. Ian Glen [who plays Daenerys' advisor, Ser Jorah Mormont] is the best mentor anyone could ever ask for. He’s incredible, just the most brilliant, prestigious British actor, and a wonderful person. And Jason Momoa [who plays Dothraki leader Khal Drogo] is just the coolest kid around.
Fire And Blood: That’s one big kid, that Momoa dude. I really think Clarke’s passion for acting comes through here, and I think her eagerness is great. I hope she never loses it. And I love that Iain Glen was busy calming Emilia while also calming his horse. I wonder which took precedence? Probably the horse, since Emilia wasn’t a risk of throwing him and breaking his neck.
One of the things I have consistently noticed is the respect these actors seem to have for the source material. Whether it’s due to the fact that they’ve actually read the books (many have read AGoT, which was a surprise to me) and love the story, or simply because they already feel the buzz (and don’t want to screw it up) … hey, the reasons don’t matter.
We ask so little: respect the story, honor the character, and give us your Best. Performance. Ever. And then it’s all good.
Thanks, Mo!
UPDATE by HmR: Maureen Ryan promises more info and full interview write-ups closer to the premiere. In the meanwhile, fans are invited to listen to the latest podcast in the Talking TV with Ryan and Ryan series, where Mo sums up her Game of Thrones stories from the TCA tour, and talks about HBO’s connection with the fans as well. About 12 minutes of solid GoT stuff! Oh, have I told you that WiC and this blog get a huge mention? To quote FaBio: Thanks, Mo!
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38 Comments
How cool is Emelia!!!
*sigh*
Ser HedgeknightQuote Reply
Benioff and Weiss have the right attitude. Fans have such varied opinions but if they can make a show that’s good enough for the author of the books, then it should be good enough for pretty much anyone.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Tywin’s Bastard,
I agree. Having the author himself, who happens to have great experience in the media, is priceless to the project. That’s a great policy to follow.
CaedesQuote Reply
I think Martin has a good point when it comes to some fans expectations. What comes to mind here is the direwolves. Some people seem to have sky high expectations about how they’re going to look. But lets face it, we’re not going to get Gollum. Peter Jackson will not come and lend the HBO production team his badass supercomputers. At some point the wolves have to become computer generated, and when that happens, it’s gonna show, there is no way avoiding that. We just have to deal with it.
BobbenQuote Reply
Not necessarily. At least not computer generated like Gollum. Theres a good possibility they’ll still use real wolflike dogs, but enhance their size in cunning ways i do not quite understand. Kinda like with the hobbits in LOTR – only bigger instead of smaller.
sjweningsQuote Reply
I’m not expecting the battle scenes to play out quite the same with the budgetary considerations. Not sure how they’re going to be approaching the Blackwater or Whispering Woods but we’ll probably see brief flashes of battles, combined with a lot of VOs or characters talking about what happened afterwards. I guess that’s true of a number of battles in the books as well, come to think on it.
I’m pretty sure most people are going to love it, despite not being a fan of this or that stylistic choice. With as many fans as this series has, pleasing everyone all the time just isn’t going to happen. I’m not so arrogant as to say “Well x doesn’t bother me. If it bothers anyone else than they’re stupid” which doesn’t seem to be unheard of. As a combination of various elements, it’s could easily approach brilliance. Flaws or no.
ZackQuote Reply
I understand budget issues and all that, but I don’t think a maester’s chain for Maester Luwin and a “bold-head-cap” for Syrio would have been that much expensive… :/
These are the small things that do not allow me to anticipate the show with complete rejoice
FelagundQuote Reply
Felagund,
Luwin has a chain…I remember it explicitly mentioned from the rundown on the secret 15-minutes of footage recently shown to Winter and FaB.
And why do you mention Syrio’s baldness, but not, say, Illyrio’s forked yellow beard, etc.? I don’t know why they didn’t go with a bald Syrio, but I can’t really be upset about it. Not sure what import his baldness had on the plot.
ZackQuote Reply
Yeah. I’m still holding out hope that it looks different in motion than in stills but as GRRM says outright, they don’t have anywhere close to the budget of LotR. I don’t know how costly the visual tricks were that made the hobbits so tiny. And it’s easier to manage people than animals, which could make visual trickery doubly difficult. We may just have to deal with direwolves that look exactly like dogs. lol
Not ideal, but it happens.
ZackQuote Reply
Ha ha, love how Emilia talks about Jason Momoa as a ‘great kid’ XD ! Funny as to me she’s a kid too and has several ‘adult’ scenes with the Khal, but maybe she’s an old soul – she speaks like a woman older than her age. So she’s beautiful, takes her work seriously, can ride, is beautiful, speaks frankly while being generous of praise and is beautiful. I wish her nothing but the best. “Mhysa! Mhysa!” (you can tell which book I am re-reading at the moment. `Thapphireth!`)
GRRM, don’t worry. We are rhetorically unreasonable, but in practice, peeing our pants like preschoolers before we get to use the udder-bouncers in the gym.
Uh, so is Mo Ryan the one taking all those promo pics, and does HBO just let her hang around on set – or is she working for HBO – sorry, missed the memo :)
reedgirlQuote Reply
All I know is that he clearly doesn’t have one in this picture and this is from that trailer.
And yes, I could have said Illyrio’s beard, or the (actually non-existant) beard of Khal Drogo (come ON!!!), or the dothraki riding clearly western-european type horses, Valyrian steel looking like any other, etc, etc.
And I have already defered myself to the not-at-all-white, ridiculously light half plate of the Kingsguard (accepting the calim that it’d look stupid in the lighting), all the Stark family being aged up 5-20 years, and so on. They had acceptable reasons for that, but not for these mentioned above, IMHO…
(Obligatory declaration: YES, I am a huge fan of GRRM, and YES, I do look forward the show (and NO, I’m not a troll :P))
FelagundQuote Reply
reedgirl,
No, Mo Ryan is just a TV critic that works for AOL’s TV Squad. But she has been an ardent follower of the show for the past year plus and has done much to build the buzz amongst TV viewers. Which is why, I think, she was able to get some one-on-one interviews when others could not. The official set photographer for GoT is a Belfast-area photographer named Helen Sloan BTW.
Felagund,
Per that picture, Luwin actually would be wearing the chain, it just isn’t visible because as we saw in the 15-min preview, it hangs down to around his waist. Not sure why they made this change from the books, but I’m sure they had a reason. David & Dan both struck me as the kind of guys who would not make a change just to make a change, they both talked repeatedly about being faithful where they could and any changes would be in service of the story or due to having to adapt to a different medium.
If I had to guess, maybe they wanted the chains to be more prominent and visible on screen, thus they made them very large? A small choker-type chain, while fine to describe in detail in the books, might not come across very well on screen.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
To his waist??? :O
Can you give me the point in the trailer when it can be seen?
(all the worst, in my opinion… Well, nevermind…)
In my opinion a chain made of links of an inch in diameter would surely been seen. Anyway, what are close-ups for?
FelagundQuote Reply
Felagund,
Luwin’s chain is hidden by the great collar of his robe.
They’ve changed the chains. Instead of a close-fitting collar, it’s a great loop of wide links (comparing the diameter to a donut is not far off, but the links are fairly thin) links that hangs quite far down. I saw this on Peter Vaughan at Magheramorne for the first time . I suppose they changed it because they liked the visual, though I admit that I’m not a fan of it. I think the close-fitting collar of links emphasized their devotion more, as something they can never really remove.
Elio & LindaQuote Reply
Elio & Linda,
Agreed, completely
FelagundQuote Reply
keep spreading the buzz!!
winter is cummingQuote Reply
I hope to one day get a chance to sit down with David & Dan for a while and just ask their reasoning behind all these minor changes and other things that only devoted fans of the books would care about. Didn’t think that the TCA press tour was the place for that. Hopefully as the show gets closer we will get a chance to do that!
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
I guess as the length of a Maester’s chain indicates his level of accomplishment, so they’re going with real long ‘uns for the likes of stalwarts like Luwin (?).
JDPQuote Reply
Fabio got the eyebrows in though! At least the chains are there and not eliminated. From the promo material it looks like they might wear them like a sachel strap.
OT sorry about your Eagles (but not really).
dizzy_34Quote Reply
But the point is never that details in the book are bad, or irrelevant in the book. The issue is that there’s a lot of prioritizing that needs to be done when adapting a book to the screen. Some things just doesn’t work or look good on the screen, other things are too irrelevant to the plot to give too much attention to in order to make the best whole.
The first thing I think one should think about when something bothers you (and I’m sure everyone has things they feel is less than perfect) is whether it affects the plot in any significant way. The chain is a good example of where things aren’t changed the least by this and it was likely done to be a more prominent visual feature of the maesters.
For me, focusing on the negatives about minor details would only take away pleasure and reward me nothing. It might work differently for others.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
On the other hand, hardcore fans can be easily pleased with a few kept nuisances like this…
(and it doesn’t really cost a thing…)
FelagundQuote Reply
Well, only some hardcore fans care about stuff like that. (I don’t.) So…. Maybe you’re part of the hardcore hardcore fan contingent! :)
Steve B.Quote Reply
My best guess (and this is totally a guess) is that since D&D have had little or no experience overseeing production design, they hired experienced people and kind of let them do their thing. The production and costume designers had less familiarity with the source material, and they made stylistic choices that deviated from the books. D&D for whatever reason, decided not to micromanage and step in on these decisions. Thus, we have a new “Gate” every week!
fake-o name-oQuote Reply
fake-o name-o,
From what we’ve heard from the production crew it sounds like they are reading the books and trying to replicate that. I would guess it’s for other reasons that things change, like that what seems good in your head might not look good on the screen, some things must be more visible, other things are unrealistic or not possible etc. Mind that I’m guessing just like you though.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
I think Tywin’s Bastard has the right idea about the maester’s chains. Visually, I think Id also anticipate that long, conspicuous chains would create a stronger visual, um, link between the maesters onscreen. And while the tightness of the chain is a definitely an attractive visual metaphor, I think seeing old men burdened down by heavy metal chains of office achieves a similarly powerful effect.
InkasrainQuote Reply
I can understand the decision of a loong chain for the maesters, as some of the old ones are almost overwhelmed by their sheer weight. This change would create the effect quite noticeably. And in the screen it will automatically stand out as a not-just-a-regular necklace, but something else.
Ender985Quote Reply
Inkasrain,
It’s nice and all that but actually in the scene seen in the trailer it is not a “stronger visual” it is no visual at all…
FelagundQuote Reply
I’d say we’ve just had pretty strong evidence that that’s not true. I mean, you’re a hardcore fan, and you’re obviously not easily pleased by little things like this… because there are dozens of little things that they did follow the books exactly on. What would please you is if they fixed that particular little thing, the one that happens to bug you. I don’t mean to rag on you for this, I think it’s a totally natural thought to have, but I think it’s just funny how so many people think “It would’ve been so easy for them to just do this one thing!”– not realizing that everyone has a different one thing in mind… so the only way they could avoid these complaints would be to concentrate on nothing but getting every trivial detail right, which would be cool but definitely not easy at all.
mummerQuote Reply
All in all I think we just have to wait till it comes out and see for ourselves.
Till then this debate is quite pointless :)
I actually do hope that the show will be great, after all :)
(And a little bit of random brainstorm, not neccessarily on the matter:
If we compare Westeros to – say – Middle-Earth, we must point out, that GRRM went into much more detail regarding the surroundings than JRRT did (for example, in the LoTR, not even the hair color of Legolas it is only known that he is clad in brown and green, while GRRM gives a detailed account of all the clothing of his characters), so I think the “collective image” of Westeros in the minds of the fans – the way they imagin Westeros and the characters – is much more similar than amongst the fans of Tolkien. Therefore, in my opinion, it would be much easier to reach a “general consent” to please the fans, and therefore it wouldn’t need that much creative effort from the crew – they just have to follow the “prescriptions” of GRRM, and all’d be well.
And since the world of Westeros is a very characteristic one, every little detail having its strongly established base and place, every little change should be as well established in the series (and frankly said, I don’t really believe that screenwriters can come up with at least as good ideas as GRRM…).
Sorry to bore you with all these, but on these basis I am very touchy about changing “these little nuisances”)
Thank you for your attention if you have reached this far :)
FelagundQuote Reply
Emilia sounds like such a sweet, genuine person. I was never the biggest Dany fan but I think watching her in the role is going to change that.
JoshQuote Reply
Felagund,
Yes, but that’s one shot. I don’t think it’s enough to say that the chains will be hard to see throughout the series.
InkasrainQuote Reply
I came here to say this exact thing. Dany is the ONLY character in the books that I outright dislike and wish I didn’t have to read about, but Emilia is so charming and charismatic and wonderful to read and watch. I think she could really make Dany work for me. She’s actually the character I’m most looking forward to seeing in the series.
RoseQuote Reply
Felagund,
It’s true that Martin includes a lot of visual details, but that doesn’t mean it would be a simple matter to just follow his descriptions for every detail, even if D&D wanted to take that approach.
They would need to have someone working on the show who did pretty much nothing but read and reread the books and compile a database of every piece of description of every character and setting (you couldn’t just do it chapter by chapter, because Martin often introduces a character at one point but only describes some detail about them at a later point)… and then look over the shoulder of all of the screenwriters, directors, and designers involved in the show, and have authority to enforce these details on all of them. Either that, or make sure all of those people are spending all of their time closely reading the books. And that’s assuming that D&D decided that absolute fidelity to every visual detail should be their top priority. I can’t think of a single adaptation of anything that’s ever been done that way, except maybe Watchmen.
I think you’re also exaggerating the exactness of Martin’s descriptions and how consistently people interpret them. Just on this forum I’ve seen dozens of cases where a fan was absolutely convinced that something was described such-and-such a way in the book, and it turned out that that detail either hadn’t been specified at all, or was vague enough that other people imagined it in a different way.
mummerQuote Reply
I was a a dothraki extra on the day Emilia is referring to in the full interveiw, and I can honestly say she didn’t look like she was bonding with Ian Glen. From my view it looked like she was getting on his nerves because she didn’t have a clue what she was doing.
Dothraki ExtraQuote Reply
Dothraki Extra,
Such a gentlemanly thing to say.
Maester TcostQuote Reply
Dothraki Extra,
I can’t give a damn for your “honesty saying”.
We have here in WIC extras coming all the time to provide us some insight in the production we’re really grateful for.
And after all these months, you show up here for first time with the only purpose of trashing an actress in the production, no other contribution aported or information given.
Get lost.
DennaiQuote Reply
Maester Tcost,
Holy cow what a jerk…
userjQuote Reply
Dothraki Extra,
Even if you’re right, Emilia (unlike you) shows class by putting it the way she did.
LexQuote Reply