Volantis’ Dany-Cosplaying Prostitute talks Filming Game of Thrones
By Ani Bundel
It was one of the more startling moments in Game of Thrones this season. When Tyrion and Varys arrive in Volantis, they experience some of the “Cult of Daenerys” that has sprung up across Essos, including a Red Priestess claiming her as savior of the world. But when they head into the local brothel so that Tyrion can finally converse with “someone with hair,” they discover that her fan base extends far beyond religious orders. Even the prostitutes are cosplaying as her, in order to offer their clients the experience of pretending to sleep with “Khaleesi.”
Said cosplaying prostitute in that scene was played by a professional porn star Samantha Bentley, who was recently interviewed by Cosmopolitan as part of their Sex Work series. This wasn’t the first time she’s been on the show. Apparently she was originally cast as part of season 4, in which her audition was her reading lines in the nude, that was then sent to the casting directors to review. She doesn’t say specifically what scene she was in, only that it was a “bathhouse” and she had one line. (So, basically the scene with Salladhor Saan, since that was the only bath house scene. The credits called her Samantha McEwan.)
She thought that was her only chance at the production.
I’d asked them if there was any chance of me returning and they said, “You had quite a lot of face time. We can’t really bring you back unless we go back to the same bathhouse [where the scene was shot].”
But as it happened, they decided to bring her back for one more turn, and this time to do a one on one scene with Peter Dinklage. Oh course, most people don’t remember it that way.
I got an email last summer and it said, “Samantha, we’d really like to have you for season five,” and I just burst into tears. I was sitting there sobbing over my breakfast. I was living in Budapest at the time and they said, “We have to fly you into Ireland to do a fitting of your costume.” I remember they picked me up from the airport and took me to the Game of Thrones offices and gave me some lunch and took me to the costume designer. She showed me the [assless dress] drawings, and I was like, “Is that me?”
And according to her, despite people’s claims that Game of Thrones is just glorified sex and violence, working on the show is nothing like working in her profession.
In that [Season 4] scene, there were 50 girls as extras and between every take, they had people go around and make sure every single hair was in place even if they were out of focus in the background.
Shooting [Season 5] was kind of nerve-racking because there were so many people in that scene. Obviously I’ve done porn, but on porn sets everyone’s naked. On the Game of Thrones set, I’m walking around with my ass out and everyone’s eyes are on me. The pressure! But this season I did feel like a little part of it because I’d been there before and people knew me from last season.
She says in the interview she’s hoping this second, much more memorable turn, where she got to ply her acting chops against one of the show’s greatest characters will help her further her career move to regular films.