Nikolaj Coster-Waldau talks season 7, Cersei and Brienne, Ice-Gate and more

Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) recently attended the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival to promote Small Crimes, his new Netflix film. While there, he spoke with The Daily Beast and answered questions about Game of Thrones season 7, Jaime’s relationship with Cersei, and the now-infamous season 7 premiere date reveal.

First up, The Daily Beast brought up the Prophecy of the Valonqar, which holds that all of Cersei’s children will die (check) and that she’ll be killed at the hands of a younger brother (note that, in the show, we only get the first part). The interviewer thinks Jaime will kill Cersei defending Brienne. Coster-Waldau simply grinned and said, “That’s a great theory.”

We can’t read too much into that, particularly since Coster-Waldau recently said that he felt the Jaime-kills-Cersei idea was too obvious. Still, the man does know his way around a plot tease.

Speaking of Jaime’s relationship with Cersei, Coster-Waldau confirmed that he’s still very much devoted to her, whether he wants to be or not.

"Jaime’s addicted to something—almost institutionalized by a situation to where there is no other way. For Jaime, there is no other way. He’s been groomed since he was 15 that, whatever his life is, it starts and ends with Cersei. He has to accommodate her."

Of course, things might be a little different now that she blew up several city blocks and killed a bunch of innocent people, the very thing Jaime killed the Mad King Aerys Targaryen to prevent — we all remember the significant look he gave her in the season 6 finale. Is he turning on her?

Coster-Waldau didn’t give away exactly what lay behind that look, but he did acknowledge that Jaime’s arrived at a point where he may have to question his unthinking devotion to his sister. “[H]e’s reached a moment now where he suddenly has to address it. What’s interesting about that is people will read into it and there was no line—it’s just a look.”

But there’s another woman in Jaime’s life: Brienne of Tarth, and her relationship with him is nearly as important as his relationship with his sister:

"It’s built out of contempt, which has turned into real respect, and love—not that they would ever use that word. I think they feel very strongly for each other. I have no idea if they would ever be able to act on it, and I don’t think they would. It’s all been about Cersei his whole life."

It all comes back to Cersei for this poor guy.

And what exactly is in store for the twins in season 7? Coster-Waldau was careful not to say too much, but does seem driven to deliver the goods. “We’re so deep into this story and getting into the endgame now so for all of us who have been on the whole journey, you really want to get it right. Every scene and every moment feels ridiculously important.”

All that said, Coster-Waldau did come close to spoiling something when talking about how Jaime’s changed over the course of the series:

"That’s what I like about Jaime: he’s lost his arm and just his presence used to be enough to sway people, and he doesn’t have that anymore—but he’s still got his mind. He’s not like his sister and brother, but he’s been on the battlefield his whole life, and knows about people’s weaknesses and loving someone unconditionally—because he loves his sister unconditionally. Plus, there are no other suitors. Well, that’s not true… but he has to step up and take his father’s place. Wow, I was about to reveal something from Season 7 and thought, “What am I doing?”"

Mull that over at your leisure.

Finally, the actor weighed in on the ridiculous method HBO used to reveal the season 7 premiere date. If you’ll recall, they hid the date on a plaque inside a giant block of ice, and melted it live on Facebook…over the course of an hour-and-a-half.

"I spoke to [Game of Thrones showrunners] Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] about that and they were like, “Oh god… That’s embarrassing.” Everyone was like, “What’s going to happen?” “What’s going to happen?!” “It’s melting!” “It crashed!” “Oh my god!” It’s like, just walk away… just walk away. It’s just a date!"

“You know, I was actually thinking, “Is there going to be a backlash and people will think, ‘Fuck you guys for that!’” but that’s really happened with every time the show kills off a major character: Never again! Fuck you! I’m never going to watch this show! and, you know, they keep coming back.” Yeah, we do…