The Game of Thrones cast members are blitzing the press ahead of the eighth and final season of the show. That includes Isaac Hempstead Wright, who spoke to Esquire about his life, his work, and how season 8 is going to blow us out of the water. Let’s start with that, shall we?
"All the episodes are longer, more or less. Well, not the first two. Obviously there are some big battles. Episode three is going to be something else. There are definitely things wrapping up from many, many seasons ago where you’re like: oh, I never thought that would come back"
We have indeed heard that Episode 3 will be something else. By all accounts that’s the episode where the living and the dead will clash at Winterfell, and it’s gonna get ugly. The recent “Aftermath” trailer should give you an idea of what they’re going for:
I’m intrigued by what Wright says about season 8 wrapping up plot threads we “never thought…would come back.” I wonder what he could be talking about. What’s Jaqen H’ghar been up to these past couple seasons? Is Old Nan going to make a comeback? Oh my god, what if she’s been hanging out at Winterfell this whole time?
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That’s probably a stretch. Anyway, Wright also gave his general thoughts on the show coming to an end:
"It’s definitely sad, but it’s the right time for it to happen. The very last scene I shot – and it was a lot of other people’s last scene – it was actually quite pathetic, everyone was in floods of tears. It was so actorly. They read out ‘that’s a wrap,’ then [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] gave a speech, and I remember thinking: I’m not going to cry. I’m feeling fine. Then they brought out our wrap gifts, which were these framed storyboards from a key scene, and the waterworks turned on."
A shame we didn’t hear what scene he got. I wonder if it was a storyboard from the first seven seasons or one from the final six episodes. We know Sophie Turner, for example, got a storyboard of Sansa’s very last scene on the show. It makes you think…
Finally, Wright discussed his life growing up on the set of the most popular show in the world. “It’s hard to remember life before Thrones,” he said. “I was just a typical kid. Hanging out in the woods, playing football. I grew up properly in the countryside, no shops or anything.”
"I was lucky in the sense that I never had a huge amount to film, and it was spread out enough so that I could go to school pretty much all the time. There were a few times I had to be away, but I was pretty studious so I was good at just catching up whatever I’d missed. Which was a good thing, because the whole ‘having a tutor on set’ thing just doesn’t work – you’d do a scene then have a quick break and it’s like right, ‘now for 3 minutes of Geography…!’"
There were rough times, too, particularly as Wright got older and the show grew more popular. “People really started to have a go at me around season six, when Bran became the Three-Eyed Raven,” he recalled.
"I remember getting a torrent of abuse after Hodor died, like it was my fault. Suddenly people decided to attack my appearance. They were like: ‘what happened to your nose?’ I was like: ‘I don’t know!’ Whenever you’re really self-loathing you can delve into this cesspit of Instagram messages that people send you. I got one from this guy going: ‘hi, I’m a plastic surgeon. I’d be really interested in doing some rhinoplasty on you’. I was like: fucking hell!"
That sounds 100% awful, but if it helps, Wright sounds like a really even-keeled guy with a good head on his shoulders. Smart, too; he intends to return to university to study neuroscience and can play classical piano.
Before we leave Wright for the moment, one more story about a time he accidentally spoiled the show for some classmates before season 6 had aired:
"I think everyone has [messed up] at some point, though. I remember being at school and talking about Dean [Charlie-Chapman, who played boy King Tommen Baratheon], and saying: ‘it’s so sad, we’ve become really good mates this year and now he’s dead!’ And everyone was like: ‘what? He’s not dead yet!’"
Of course the actors behind Bran and Tommen would become good friends. They can commiserate over their hatred of high windows.
Bran and the rest of the gang return on April 14.
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h/t IGN