In October of 2017, Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) waited on pins and needles for the show’s last six scripts to arrive. She was in Vancouver working on the Robert Zemeckis film Return to Marwen, and expecting at any moment to find out how the final season of the show would go before the full cast table read in Belfast.
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“They came through at 4:40 a.m.,” the 40-year-old Christie told Entertainment Weekly. “I woke at half past five and read them all.” As usual, she was excessively worried for Brienne:
"Every couple of pages I thought I was dead. If you’re lucky enough to get to season 8, you expect to die on the first page. That’s the worst case scenario. The very worst case scenario is dying off screen. At one point while reading I said to my partner, “I think I died and nobody said anything.”"
Unlike a number of other Thrones cast members, Christie doesn’t check out the conclusion first: “I always read, as part of my training, from beginning to end,” she says. “This is something I do partially because I’m a fan of the show. I want to know what’s going on with the other characters.”
Of course, Christie isn’t spilling any beans regarding the fate of her character or any others, but like her costar Emilia Clarke, she took a long, reflective walk afterwards. “I had lots of questions,” Christie says. “If there’s a character you care about and you feel like they go through some sort of hell you feel protective toward them.”
It’s heady stuff, to learn the end of a story you’ve been part of for the better part of a decade. And Christie is quick to that the end of this story is a winner. “There’s something about this story that’s compulsive and essential. What have done in terms of this being the final season is masterful. I don’t think there’s any way people aren’t going to want more.”
That’s wonderful to hear. But we’re all still concerned for Brienne, who is glimpsed in the season 8 trailer desperately fighting off the Night King’s undead army. “I put my heart and soul into this project and thrown myself into it physically as well, which has been incredibly challenging this year,” Christie said. “We get to see Brienne going full throttle doing what we all love to watch her do.”
The epic Winterfell battle sequence was physically demanding on the actors, but Christie felt it was even harder on the production team:
"It’s the crew I feel for. They’re the ones who are truly the face of brutal suffering when it comes to the relentlessness of the schedule and I deeply admire them for that. But the storyline is so great. I have the skills now where when I’m told there’s going to be a fight and it’s nine moves with 30 men running at you that I can do it. And the Winterfell set is huge, it’s enormous. I’ve worked on big things and this is enormous."
Everything she’s saying is making the season sound pretty epic, no? “This season we see more of Brienne than ever before,” Christie continued. “I’m delighted the character has been learning from everyone she’s been around. There’s been a timidness and a tense vulnerability that was the opposite of her physical strength.”
It has obviously been just as much fun for Christie to experience Brienne’s journey as it has been for us to watch it. “It’s been interesting to watch her embrace her intellect and humor and step forward in life and make decisions,” she said. “I think this is a season where Brienne’s gender is really no longer an issue. She’s treated as an equal by all and that’s very pleasing.”
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Finally, EW asked Christie how Brienne will react to meeting Daenerys. “Brienne’s allegiance is to Sansa,” Christie said. “I do think she’d like a go on her dragon!”
Game of Thrones season 8 premieres on HBO on April 14.
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