Richard Dormer (Beric Dondarrion) talks filming the battle beyond the Wall

Beric Dondarrion isn’t the the most important character on Game of Thrones, but actor Richard Dormer has done a lot with a little, and carved out a place for himself among the expansive Game of Thrones cast. He made an impression this year when Beric went beyond the Wall with Jon Snow to capture a wight, something Dormer talked about with The Guardian.

"The episode Beyond the Wall took five months … it just went on and on. The fight sequence took five weeks to film and lasts five minutes. Just climbing on the dragon took maybe a month – and on screen it’s an eye-blink…[I]t’s not nice being soaking wet and very hot and yet very cold at the same time and trudging up and down the most beautiful glaciers in the world – but not even being able to look because you feel so tired."

Happily, the cast and crew were wonderful, and helped pass the time. When not shooting, Dormer spent a lot of time playing Risk with his costars. “There were a lot of arguments, mainly because Iain Glen [Jorah Mormont] is so competitive. He would just sit there going ‘Noooo why? Why are you all attacking me?'” Now that’s a funny image. (Kit Harington was apparently the best Risk player, incidentally.)

It also helped that, as Beric, Dormer got to use what he described as “the coolest weapon on the show. It’s better than a lightsaber.” It’s hard to argue too much with a flaming sword, although apparently it was complicated to wield on set.

"Because Beric only has one eye, I’d be temporarily blind and swinging the flaming sword – which is real, not CGI … every time I hit them they’d go whumpf and guys would charge in with extinguishers."

Sounds difficult, but then again…flaming sword.

Sticking with the Star Wars references, Dormer compares Dondarrion to Obi-Wan Kenobi, noting that Beric “carries his burden very well and is lightly philosophical about it.” That burden, of course, would be the fact that Beric has been killed and resurrected multiple times now, something that weighs on him. “[E]very time Beric dies he loses a part of himself so he’s constantly mourning the human he used to be.”

Dormer has made something of a speciality of playing tortured characters; you can see him do it again in the BBC drama Rellik, where he plays Gabriel Markham, a detective who’s suffered a face-disfiguring acid attack. The prosthetics involved are taxing, as is working on a show where the story is told back to front. (“Rellik” is “killer” spelled backwards. Geddit?) “Because the story goes backwards you’re aiming towards the person you were before this began rather the one you will be, which is a bit of a head fuck,” Dormer said. “It really gets under your skin.”

Watch a clip from the new show below:

So beyond Rellik…did Beric Dondarrion die (for good) when the Wall fell in the season 7 finale? On that particular question, Dormer is silent. Until next time.

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