Ian McElhinney on late-in-life fame and Barristan Selmy’s early exit
By Dan Selcke
For four non-consecutive seasons, Ian McElhinney appeared on Game of Thrones as Barristan Selmy, a former Kingsguard knight and right-hand man to Daenerys Targaryen. When the character died in Season 5’s “Sons of the Harpy,” fans —particularly those who had read George R.R. Martin’s novels—were shocked. (Selmy is still alive on the page.)
As one of the few cast members to have read the books, McElhinney was right there with them. “I did talk to them about it,” McElhinney said of the show’s producers shortly after the episode aired. “I gave some arguments of my own why I thought Barristan was kind of important in Daenerys’ story, important enough that he should stay in Daenerys story, and he didn’t.”
If he was “miffed” at the time, it seems like he’s made peace with it. “I think you have to accept – as I have accepted – that the demands of TV are different than the demand of book writing,” he recently told The Belfast Telegraph. “With TV, there’s a pressure to create a number of high points.”
"One of the big things about this series – it’s true in the books and even more true in the series – is the surprise element, the shocks. They’ve got to keep that up because people expect that now. You can’t predict anything, but what you can predict is that there will be surprises."
And after all, Game of Thrones did wonderful things for McElhinney’s career, “[a]nd for that I will always be grateful.” Having heard his rich voice on the show, McElhinney is now sought after for documentary and advertisement work, in addition to being an in-demand guest at fan conventions. It’s probably difficult to be bitter when the offers are rolling in.
And of course, being on Game of Thrones brought McElhinney a certain level of fame he hadn’t had before, even though he’d been appearing on TV and in film since the early ’80s. “For years, I was just Joe Bloggs,” the 68-year-old actor said. (English colloquialism corner: “Joe Bloggs” is a placeholder name, kinda similar to “John Doe.”) “There was no excitement until Game of Thrones, and then people started recognizing me. It’s strange to be getting into your dotage and suddenly discovering that you have a fanbase.”
This weekend, McElhinney will be performing Door Into The Dark, a tribute to Irish poet Seamus Heaney, at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy. The actor’s next big project is RedWater, a six-part spinoff of British soap opera EastEnders, airing on BBC One in 2017. He plays a character named Lance, although he’s been sworn to secrecy regarding the plot. He’s probably used to that by now.