UPDATED: Gwendoline Christie on How To Fight A Bear, the Show Outpacing the Books
By Ani Bundel
Gwendoline Christie is having the busiest off-season of all the Game of Thrones cast members. Not only did she do promotional red carpet appearances for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, but now she’s on the interview circuit for her role as Captain Phasma in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Last night, she turned up on The Late Late Show with James Corden, who obliged her a little by talking about Star Wars, but like most right-thinking people, all he really wanted to do was discuss Game of Thrones.
And if you’re talking about Brienne on Game of Thrones, you’re going to want to discuss one of her biggest stunts to date: getting thrown in a bear pit with a real life ursine by the name of Bart.
Corden also brought up the fact that she’s in two of the biggest spoiler-intense entertainment properties around, and asked if fans accost her on a regular basis and try to shake her down for information. She insisted that most people are polite. It was only one of the most evil creatures we humans face on a regular basis who attempted to use their instruments of torture on her to gain information.
We are, of course, talking about her trip to the dentist. (And not just for a routine cleaning. The man tried to use a root canal on her! That’s gotta be illegal in at least four states and Canada.)
Good thing one cannot actually speak when in the dentist’s chair.
UPDATE: The Gwendoline Christie media drive continues. She sat down with the rather intense Will Marfuggi of E! and discussed Game of Thrones Season 6. Naturally, she didn’t reveal much, but her comments on how the show has gone beyond the books are interesting.
"I really love what David Benioff and Dan Weiss are doing. I think that they’re creating some really fascinating and intelligent storytelling, and George R.R. Martin is an executive producer on Game of Thrones so nothing is ever without his blessing."
It sounds like Christie is threading the needle in an interesting way here. Her comments about loving what Benioff and Weiss are doing implies that they’re doing something different than what Martin is doing, but the bit about Martin still being an executive producer assures us that he’s maintaining some level of control. I can’t wait to see how that balance shakes down when Season 6 arrives in April.