Gwendoline Christie has played the fiercely loyal Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones since 2012. Since then, Brienne served as a Kingsguard, swore an oath of loyalty to Catelyn Stark, escorted Jaime Lannister to King’s Landing, beat The Hound in a brutal fight, executed Stannis Baratheon, entered the service of Sansa Stark and represented the Lady of Winterfell at the Dragonpit summit.
And if it wasn’t for a friend telling Christie that fans were talking about her for the role on forums, Christie may never have gotten to experience any of that. Speaking to BAFTA Guru, she talks about her audition process, learning to be Brienne and what she learned from her co-stars. Check it out:
“A friend told me in 2011 that there was something written about me on the internet being in an HBO show,” she says. “So I looked it up — I’d never done anything like that before — and I saw all of these incredible fan forums featuring my name.” A bit of googling later, and she was fascinated:
"And that really blew my mind. The idea that there might be this portrayal of a woman in mainstream entertainment who was entirely unconventional, who was physically very strong, but that wasn’t the most interesting thing about her. The most interesting thing about her is that that is coupled with an extreme sensitivity and vulnerability. And whilst she was achieving these huge and impressive and deeply physical feats, that she is slowly developing as a person, as a woman, and as a human. It’s like a sort of rite of passage that she goes through. And also it did examine what it is to be unconventional, particularly as a woman within society. What interested me the most, which George R.R. Martin did so brilliantly and David and Dan have done wonderfully, is that it was about overcoming the obstacle. It wasn’t just about being mocked for being outside of society. It was about overcoming that obstacle and changing attitudes, and that made me want to play the part so badly."
Christie read the Song of Ice and Fire novels through A Storm of Swords. She also trained physically, all in preparation for her first audition. Her second audition lasted about five minutes. “I thought, ‘okay so I’ve got that or that just went so so badly, so so badly.”
Of course she got the part, and quickly began learning how to sword fight under stuntman C.C. Smith. “We worked on the way I walked, the way I held my body…I was able to achieve things I never thought I could, like fighting a man that’s 6’7” and weighs 22 stone. Sorry, Rory.”
This all happened before Game of Thrones was the global phenomena it is now, back when it felt like “a group of actors thrown together all working hard to craft the scenes…to really work this drama and make that come to life.”
"The writing has been absolutely incredible and I feel really privileged to have played that part and to have received that kind of writing to work with. The storyline with Jaime Lannister has been incredible. The scenes I’ve loved best have been my scenes with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, because he’s taught me so much about acting…mainly how not to do it. No, I’m joking."
We agree…about the Jaime-Brienne stuff being terrific, not Coster-Waldau being a good example of how not to act. “I think the bathtub scene was an amazing scene,” she says. “Actually to get watch Nikolaj’s work at such close quarters and to leave myself open and really be deeply affected by that performance. Also fighting the bear. Also fighting the Hound.”
BAFTA needles Christie about what she hasn’t liked about making the show, but she seems reticent to complain, saying only that she’s “hugely lucky to have done such a thing…t has changed my life. That kind of overrides everything else, because you’re aware of how privileged you are to be in that position.” She admits that the physical work can be difficult, because how could it not be, “but look at what it makes. So no complaints.”
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