German website Taz.de recently sat down with Game of Thrones star Tom Wlaschiha, who portrays the Faceless Man Jaqen H’ghar, and got some fun quotes from the Obi-Wan, if you will, to Arya Stark’s Luke Skywalker. I’ve converted the interview using my expertise in Google Translate, so you’ll have to pardon me if some quotes seem as if they’ve gotten lost in translation.
Taz asked Wlaschiha if he was always a fan of fantasy fiction. He responded that, until Game of Thrones, he really wasn’t, but he considers George R.R. Martin to be a modern-day Shakespeare.
"The figures are all cleverly drawn and very human. That’s what makes the show so exciting: As a viewer you never know what’s up [with] a character in truth."
That certainly applies to a slippery character like Jaqen. Next, the actor was asked what makes a real Game of Thrones fan. His answer was a little surprising.
"This is a very unique species. First of all [they] know the course [of] all the books and everything else [that] has been published..But who is a real fan in which is every few weeks Carnival. There are conventions, [where] the fans run [around in] absurd costumes…Or meet in the woods or on a castle for RPG. I have…sometimes met myself [at conventions]…But that is one of the simpler costumes: long hair wig, rags clothes, ready!"
Now, as we all know, there are two main factions in Game of Thrones fandom: Unsullied (non-book readers) and Sullied (book readers). Fans from either of those factions might role play and go to conventions…which is completely fine, but just because you don’t partake in those activities does not mean you are not a “real” Game of Thrones fan.
Wlaschiha also talked about how he approaches playing Jaqen H’ghar, a character about whom we know almost nothing.
"Personally, I think you may not be smarter than the writer as an actor. What is written, can play it, no more and no less. The overall picture arises in the mind of the viewer. [A]lso, because of [his] inconsistency, [Jaqen H’ghar’s] a sexy figure. On the one hand he is a ruthless killer, the other hand also a popular figure. It’s fun to play someone so ambivalent. The background of the character for me is not important at all. I leave the hardcore fans who always develop the Internet their own theories."
A sexy figure, huh? I wonder if he’s aware that fans call him “Sexy Jesus?” Taz, of course, tries to get Wlaschiha to tell it what we’d all like to know: Does Jaqen H’ghar die anytime soon? And of course, the actor expertly maneuvers around the question, although he does mentions that he’s filmed “three seasons,” which we can take as confirmation that he’ll appear in Season 6, although we were pretty sure of that already. Wlaschiha drops one last hilarious quote, after Taz asks him why someone would watch Game of Thrones when it is so bloody and violent:
"Who does not want to blood and violence, I would advise rather to become a chamomile tea and to watch “Love Boat”."
Well played Sexy Jesus, well played.