When it comes Game of Thrones, the buck stops with showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss. From scripts to costumes, the duo wields complete control over all things Westeros. And while Benioff and Weiss have been open to suggestions from actors in the past, according to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, they’ve taken a harder line for season 7. Coster-Waldau called it a “significant shift.”
And yet one man dared to defy the throne: Pilou Asbaek, who plays Euron Greyjoy. Radio Times reports that, while speaking at the London Film and Comic Con, Asbaek revealed that Benioff and Weiss initially wanted to cut one of Euron’s lines from “Dragonstone,” when he meets with Cersei. Here’s the relevant part of the exchange:
"Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to grow up and marry the most beautiful woman in the world. So here I am, with a thousand ships… and two good hands."
Which part was on the chopping block? Asbaek explains:
"Dan and David came up to me and said ‘we’re gonna take out this line’ and I said ‘which one of them?’ ‘And two good hands.’ And I just looked at them and I said ‘that is so wrong. It needs to go “here I am, with a thousand ships… and two good hands”. It’s a great line! They wanted to take it out because they felt it was too much but it’s never too much if you can… it’s two really good hands!"
We don’t often disagree with Benioff and Weiss on dialogue choices (except every word uttered by a Sand Snake), but we have to agree with Asbaek on this one. That line went over well…as long as your name isn’t Jaime Lannister.
According to Asbaek, that wasn’t the only suggestion he made about Euron. The actor also had ideas about how the character should look, and said that “it was my idea the leather pants and the leather jacket, and the eye-liner.” Way to own it, Asbaek.
Of course, he’s not in control of everything. Asbaek revealed that Euron was originally more “broody” on the page before Benioff and Weiss made cuts. “The pages that we were supposed to shoot… he was much more broody, he was much more grrrrr. And they took a lot of that out.”
Euron has been anything but brooding this season, whether he’s taunting Jaime or slaughtering enemy Ironborn. We’ll see his journey continue (or not — it’s hard to tell) in “The Spoils of War,” which airs this Sunday.
Next: Is Varys going to die? Conleth Hill weighs in on Melisandre’s ominous prediction
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