Charles Dance on his Game of Thrones Death Scene
Charles Dance is a full season removed from his final moments on Game of Thrones. If you remember, Dance’s character—Lord Tywin Lannister—was shot dead with a crossbow fired by his son Tyrion whilst he sat on the privy in the Season 4 finale. It was an inglorious death for such a powerful, respected character, and one that the actor himself did not see coming.
Speaking to Radio Times, Dance said he knew that Tywin died, but that the specifics were a mystery.
"I knew his demise was coming but I didn’t know how. I didn’t read the books. They are far too thick. They frighten me books that thick…and we weren’t shooting books we were shooting very good adaptations by David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss]."
You would think that the actors on Game of Thrones would want to know the way their characters are going to die…I mean, I wouldn’t be able to resist at least searching the internet to see what happened to my character specifically, even if I didn’t read up on anyone else.
Dance’s story about how he found out how he would die is rather funny.
"There was a guy in the street who came up to me and said ‘Game of Thrones, brilliant, you’ve got a great death scene’. And I said, ‘oh do I?’ He told me the manner of my death so I went into Waterstones, got the book and saw, ah on the khazi. Right. OK. Suitable demise, I thought."
So Charles Dance did at least thumb through A Storm of Swords to find out how he would go. Also, I looked up the word “khazi” and apparently it’s English slang for “toilet.” Keep bringing us those Britishisms, Game of Thrones cast.
I find it rather hilarious that Charles Dance, the man who portrayed the most feared and respected man in all of Westeros, thought his character’s death on the “khazi” was a suitable demise. Man, I miss that guy.