Isaac Hempstead Wright talks the Battle of Winterfell and “my f–king wheelchair”
By Corey Smith
With the Battle of Winterfell in the rearview mirror, the cast and crew members of Game of Thrones have been making the rounds to discuss the grueling 55-night shoot, the longest in the show’s history. That includes Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), who’s character was used as bait to draw in the Night King. While being confined to a wheel chair for the duration of the shoot might sound easy enough, Wright revealed to E! News that it was anything but:
"It’s really disorientating when you’re working all through the night. It’s not like when you’re on a break you can just text your mates and see what’s going on because they’re all in bed. Especially when you finish the day and you’re like, that’s a hard day’s work, [let’s] go for a pint. It’s like, oh no, I can’t. It’s six in the morning."
Maybe have a pint in your hotel room with your fellow castmates? Call it a morning cap?
Anyway, according to Wright, not being able to move during these long shoots was a complete pain.
"Whenever the scene cut, everyone else could get up and move around and have a chat and I’d be stuck in my f–king wheelchair being like, guys, can you come and talk to me because I can’t bloody move! I think there was one particular [scene] where I was there for a good hour and a half, stuck in that bloody chair."
Okay, now that does sound pretty damn awful.
But while Bran might have been rather passive during the Battle of Winterfell, his interactions with Jaime Lannister, the man who pushed him out of a tower in the series premiere, have so far been a highlight. “It was a really cool episode of season 8 because there were so many parallels with that first episode of season 1. It was fun to get to do that and it was fun to freak Jaime Lannister out a bit. Getting to repeat that line to him, the things we do for love. Everyone looks at Bran like, it’s that weird kid in the corner again. But Jaime knows exactly what’s up.”
As for the remainder of the season, Hempstead Wright was Bran-level mysterious, only discussing how leaving the character behind made him feel. “It was really sad. Saying goodbye to Bran and putting that costume away for the last time was like, wow. It was really weird. I’m never in my life going to be Bran Stark again, the person I’ve got to play for the last ten years of my life. It’s a pretty huge chapter of my life to say goodbye to, so it was emotional.”
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And how does Hempstead Wright plan to watch the mysterious season 8 finale? “I think I might get a bunch of mates together. My girlfriend said she’ll watch it with me but she’s never seen an episode before in her life, so I’m not sure she’d enjoy that very much.” We’re not here to give relationship advice, but spoiling the whole series hardly sounds like a good idea for a long and fruitful partnership. Start at the beginning!
Wright has a slightly better plan for maintaining good relations with his castmates. “I think a lot of us will be keen to do the reunions. We’ve got a little group chat so people are always popping up ideas in there of when we should hang out. Somebody mentioned Ibiza. We’ll have to see.”
Game of Thrones season 8 returns Sunday. Hopefully Bran explains a thing or two.
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