Tonight’s the night! With twelve more hours until the Game of Thrones premiere, let’s have a quick round up of the last of the interviews from cast members hyping that which really cannot be hyped much more than it already is.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was the final Late Night guest appearance, doing a turn on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Despite Colbert admitting he does not watch the show (he is one of those old school nerds who is waiting for the book series to finish), that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know some things about the show…like how to make a guest feel at home.
Coster-Waldau was unfazed, naturally. During his interview, he discussed the strength of the characters who have survived thus far over the last five seasons, especially when it comes to the female characters on the show.
“The women on the show are amazing. They’re very, very strong, powerful women as women are. They’re not just the wife applauding her husband. They’re taking control.” Among those he name check specifically: his “sister” on the show, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), the “Dragon Lady” Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Brienne of Tarth (Gwen Christie), and Lady Olenna (Diana Rigg.)
Coster Waldau might be singing the praise of the strength of women, but over at TV Line, John Bradley admits that when it comes to his character, there’s no one weaker.
Sam’s got himself, over the course of Season 5, to a point where he’s pretty confident. He had this aim… where he just wanted to get Jon into power so he could wrangle his way out of Castle Black with Baby Sam and Gilly. He’s achieved that.
But these are small aims when it comes to the reality of the world around him. And Bradley admits, that truth is not one Sam could probably handle. If he finds out about Jon’s death, “he’d feel the guilt of it. He’d think, ‘Maybe if I was there, I could’ve done something to help. Maybe I could’ve stopped it from happening. He’d burden himself with that guilt, because that’s what he’s done all his life.”
Bradley says he personally thinks it’s best if Sam doesn’t find out. Does that mean Sam won’t find out this season? Or if he does, will we see him shatter? “It would destroy every single ounce of confidence he’s been allowed to build up.” says Bradley. Poor Sam. Good thing Gilly’s strong enough to pick up the pieces.
Meanwhile, Emilia Clarke stopped by Entertainment Weekly to talk about the renewed need to speak Dothraki.
Apparently, relearning it for Season 6 was tricky, but Clarke found ways around it, although it sometimes made things difficult for costar Joe Naufahu, who plays Khal Moro, a Dothraki warrior it sounds like Dany will interact with a lot this year.
"It was doing this scene with Joe Naufahu and the camera is on him. So my brain goes, “We don’t need Dothraki anymore because [the camera] isn’t on me, it’s not on my face, so you can just forget it.” But annoyingly, I still need to speak even though it’s his close-up. So I found myself making it up and the hilarity that ensued was ridiculous. I looked at him dead in the eye said: ”All-la-tat-tat-tat-TAT-TAT!”"
I imagine there were giggles on set that day. Also, her favorite phrase in Dothraki is “Qoy Qoyi” (blood of my blood) and she’ll occasionally shout “Dracarys” when angry. That’s not Dothraki, but the more often one can use made-up words as swears, the better.
Moving on to the Stark sisters, Sophie Turner (Sansa) sat down with the Wall Street Journal, where she reflected on growing up Game of Thrones and venturing into unknown territory, story-wise.
She also did a video for GQ where she proved herself to be quite adept at Game of Thrones trivia, or a sort. It’s clear she watches the show, at least.
Meanwhile, Kristian Nairn (Hodor) stopped by Philly.com, where he discussed the spoiler lockdown the producers have put into effect this year. “It’s a different territory this season,” he said. “So they’re super-secretive, and we really want people to be shocked and surprised this year.”
Nairn also confirmed that, yes, it is harder to carry around Bran now that actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright has had a massive growth spurt.
"He’s like a Great Dane. When you see a Great Dane puppy, you sort of say it grows into its legs. He has these really long legs, and I’m assuming he’s going to grow into them. . . . So he’s going to be a tall chap. So for me to carry him for the remainder of the show – you never know when we’ll end up leaving the show, who knows? – it’s going to be more and more difficult."
Speaking of sidekick characters, Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne) also got in on the interview blitz, speaking to STV News about the new season. “It’s the best one yet by a mile,” he said. “It genuinely is. There’s most twists and turns, more shocks, more things you won’t expect and I think a lot of characters you’ll see a much more human side of, so I will leave it there.”
"All the Starks are wiped out that had any sort of power, the king is dead, and then the guy that you thought was the hero is gone. So who is going to step up? That’s what season six is all about"
He also teased the potential end of Podrick Payne, although he was vaguer than you might expect. “Season six might be my last season,” he said. “I might die in season six or I might not. You’ll just have to tune in.” You’d figure he’d know, wouldn’t you? Maybe he was just teasing.
Portman has quite a bit more to say—he talks about the potential of a romance between Brienne and Podrick (not happening), reveals that he loved working with Alfie Allen (confirming that Pod and Theon must meet at some point), and drops some fun facts about how he got on the show. Head over to STV News for the full interview.
Finally, Maisie Williams (Arya) spoke to The Telegraph about what a hard time Arya is having adjusting to the demands of the Faceless Men. Her purpose in life is to get personal revenge (Williams is glad that Arya has never been one of the many characters jockeying for power—her quest is personal), and the notion of killing to appease some greater power—in her case, the Many-Faced god—is something she struggles with.
"[T]o now channel all the same emotion and energy into working for someone else, I don’t know if that is something she is cut out for. And that’s a huge thing we see coming into season six, we see a massive conflict within her. What does she want from this?"
And later:
"She’s been carrying the weight of her dead family for a really long time and she’s taken upon herself to right all of these wrongs. She hasn’t teamed up with anyone, she’s taken this all on herself. The thought of letting all that go and working for someone else feels like a good idea to Arya at the moment but whether or not she’s cut out for it is another thing entirely."
See you tonight!