Daniel Portman discusses Podrick Payne’s “everyman quality”

In an extensive (and hilarious) interview with Esquire, Daniel Portman talks about all things Podrick Payne, including the obsession people have with his little Pod. But to really appreciate and understand his character, let’s go back to the beginning, when everyone saw him as nothing but a useless tool.

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Time and time again, Podrick stepped in and gallantly saved the day when we least expected it, starting when he drove a spear through the back of Ser Mandon Moore’s head during the Battle of the Blackwater and saved Tyrion’s life. And a badass was born.

Podrick is #LoyaltyGoals. He’s the guy you want by your side when s**t hits the fan. All that and he’s apparently really good in bed, at least if you listen to those prostitutes from season 3, who refused to take his money. So why has he survived when many more prominent characters have fallen along the way? “It just kind of felt like there was something there, so they wanted to keep writing for me,” Portman said. “That’s a huge compliment to have writers say that, ‘We just want you around because we write you and we think that what you bring to it is important.’ That’s very touching, very very touching.”

Not that I want to spend this entire article talking about Podrick’s d**k, but we have to mention the part of the interview where Portman reveals what he tells fans about being Sex God Pod.

"A magician never reveals his secrets. If I f***ing g knew my life would be very different. I was 20 when that happened, so it was kind of like a kid in a candy shop. When you tell a 20-year-old actor, who’s sort of stumbled onto this big TV show, that all of a sudden you’re meant to be Casanova, people all over the world wonder whether or not it’s true. I would be lying if I said that that hadn’t been fun."

And while Sex God Pod is great and all, we love Podrick Payne for his innocence. He’s just so damn pure on a show full of conniving and questionable characters.

And we fell in love with Podrick all over again after this week’s episode, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” Daniel Portman blew us away with his beautiful rendition of “Jenny of Oldstones,” providing the emotional center of a calm, relaxed episode, probably the last one we’ll ever have. “Pod has a real everyman quality and that’s why people connect with him,” Portman said. “In these moments of stress, music can be a great comfort to people. In the world of Westeros, music has been an important thing. Like the ‘Rains of Castamere.'”

That everyman quality is the last of a trio of things that make Pod a dark horse contender for best supporting character of the series: he has a heart of gold, pipes to match, and he’s relatable:

"I think everybody’s been in that situation, where they feel like the useless guy, or maybe they don’t quite fit in. Maybe I don’t deserve to be here. He kind of sanctifies that. I think that’s why people connect with him. Everybody’s been that awkward, uncomfortable person before, and he makes the best of it. He doesn’t have all the tools and he doesn’t have all the experience, but he’s willing. That’s all you can really do, isn’t it?"

Finally, Portman talked a little about what it felt like to film the end of the show, and how he said goodbye. Grab your tissue box, just in case.

"The experience was so important to me that that was the saddest thing for me. The idea that I wasn’t going to see these people for six months of the year, every year anymore. We weren’t going to dress up and have fun and do this cool shit together anymore. That’s kind of hard to take."

Hard to take, indeed. You read more delightful Pod facts here.

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