Game of Thrones armorer Natalia Lee talks being a woman in a male-dominated business
Natalia Lee has one of the cooler jobs in show business: she’s served as an armorer on Game of Thrones for the past eight years, making the shows weapons and armor. She also played Chella, the fierce leader of the Black Ears clan from the Vale, in seasons 1 and 2.
It’s a rewarding job, but it has its challenges, as Lee told BBC News:
"I’m constantly told, ‘Women don’t want to see that, women don’t want to do that.’ It’s so frustrating. We’re capable of handling weapons, I’ve proved I can carry all of them. My job’s a learned, technical skillset, so your gender has no bearing."
Working alongside weapons master Tommy Dunne as co-coordinator of their small group, Lee — at age 35 — calls herself the baby of the crew, even though she’s been there longer than men 20 years her senior. Her advice to other female armorers trying to break into the businessis simple: “Yes, you can!”
"The job can be hard. You’re going to be the only girl in the room, quite isolated. I’m used to men being rowdy, and getting them on your side pretty quickly. It can be intimidating for women to be outnumbered. But don’t be disheartened — most men want you to succeed and they’ve been my greatest allies."
Lee prides herself on looking after young women on set, as well. “If it’s a stand-in or stuntwoman, I’ll always reach out and talk to them, I know how it is,” she said. “Some days I’m the only woman in a male environment of thousands of men. I know it can be uncomfortable.”
It’s worth it, though, as Lee loves the “physical discipline” of working with weapons; she’s particularly proud of her work on Heartsbane, the Tarly family Valyrian steel sword.
“I was surrounded by weaponry growing up, my family was always at shooting ranges,” she said. “The lure of the film industry dragged me in. You tend to travel a lot and it’s better than working in a bunker somewhere.”
According to Lee, her team can make up to 20 different versions of a particular weapon: steel is used for close-ups, aluminum for fight scenes (because it’s blunt but still makes the clanking sound steel blades make when weapons clash) and rubber for riding horses or falling into water.
As for the actors, Lee has a few favorites. She finds that just about every woman she meets — young or old — says the same thing about Kit Harington — “[H]e’s so beautiful” — but there’s more to him than that. “He’s a really lovely, polite young man.”
Lee recalls working with Harington on a glacier in Iceland, and while she was dressed in layers of thermals, he had to have his hands and face exposed for the entire time he was on camera. “I was still freezing,” she said. “And yet he said ‘Thank you’ every time I put on his sword or helped him with something. If it was me, I would probably have been screaming, going ‘Get that thing off!'”
But Lee’s absolute favorite actor is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), since he’s “very competitive [and] very sporty.” She also says Coster-Waldau is actually good at fighting with one hand. Jerome Flynn (Bronn) is another favorite, because he’s “wisecracking and also a great humanitarian in his own life.” She also admires Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), as she’s “tremendously talented” and has “done everything from wirework to fighting with knives and swords.” And Lee had to work with Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) to make her into who had to learn to be more of a tomboy. “You go, ‘No buddy, you’ve got to look like a bloke.’ It could be something as simple as how she’s holding the sword, so you have to work with fine mannerisms.”
Now that Game of Thrones has finished filming forever, Lee says she has no desire to be the armorer for the prequel, which will reportedly begin shooting in October. Instead, she’ll be working with guns on Amazon’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, starring John Krasinski.
"I’ve been stuck in medieval weaponry since the pilot – eight years. They say there’s going to be a prequel but I’m out, wanting to do my own thing."
When it comes to the future of females as armorers and weapons masters in television and film, Lee says there needs to be very clear goals in place, like “mentoring programs, female apprentices and a quota for women on the crew. If one girl sees another in a workshop, they won’t feel as intimidated.”
"When we can say there’s a girl who works with a two-ton catapult and nobody blinks an eyelid, that’s when we’ll be on an equal playing field."
Lee has paved the way for that to happen. We can’t wait to see what she has in store for season 8.
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