Gemma Whelan on Game of Thrones Season 6: “Am I dead?”

Rumors swirled all last season that Gemma Whelan, who plays Theon’s sister Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, would somehow magically appear sometime during Season 5. It never came to pass. (Which is probably a good thing, because if she had followed her book plot path and wound up in Stannis’ camp, she’d be dead now.) But with the casting of Euron Greyjoy, and spoilers out of filming that suggest that Theon will be headed home to the Iron Islands, it was inevitable that it would get out that she’s in Season 6 too.

In a new interview with Comedy.co.uk (Whelan was known for her comedy roles before being cast as Yara), she admits that the spoilers being out there is something of a relief, because it means she doesn’t have to panic about accidentally spoiling anything.

[E]ven when I said I’m going to Northern Ireland on Wednesday to you just now, I thought ‘oh god, maybe I shouldn’t say that.’ You really watch your back on everything – ‘don’t say too much’. But at least it’s been leaked that I’m going to be in it, so I can talk freely about that.

She thinks it’s interesting that the hunger for spoilers is so much more off the charts this year now tat the show has run out of books, and no one knows what will happen next. As for her, there was only one question when she got her script for this year–how long did she have left?

‘Am I dead? Am I dead? Am I dead?’ – it’s the first thing you look for.

I suppose knowing how long one has to live is always useful, at least when it comes to calculating paychecks and rent. Despite the fact that the Yara Greyjoy get up is very different from her normal look (“I never get recognised, or very rarely,”) she admits even if she was dead though, she’d probably go hang out at the Belfast airport anyway. “To confuse people!”

Hey, I know a guy I think might have been doing that…. I think his name was Kit?….

Anyway, so far as we know Yara Greyjoy still lives, and will at least turn up once in Game of Thrones Season 6. Until then, you can see Gemma Whelan doing comedy with her latest character Chastity Butterworth in Soho. She’s hoping it gets picked up as a series on BBC or ITV soon.

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