Gwendoline Christie talks representation, Captain Phasma, and Brienne’s end

Yesterday, we featured the panel discussion discussion Kit Harington gave at ACE Comic Con this past weekend. Now, it’s Gwendoline Christie’s turn. Watch Brienne of Tarth greet her public below!

“I’m really excited about Brie Larson,” Christie quipped, “and less excited about Kit Harington.” Well, what’s he gonna say that you don’t already know?

I just realized that Jon and Brienne never really had a proper scene together. A shame, that.

Anyway, Christie dropped plenty of pearls of wisdom during the interview, including this lovely answer to a question about how she balanced playing Brienne on Thrones while she was playing the villainous Captain Phasma in the Star Wars movies:

"There was no balancing to be done. Parts like Brienne and Phasma mean something – to me and to popular culture – That’s why I persevere in this job I’m lucky enough to do; they communicate a message. These characters spoke to me in a very profound way. And because of what we’ve been fed from the mainstream media, which has been from a very patriarchal perspective, we hadn’t had a lot of diversity or variety of women’s stories, and so I found that these characters spoke to me on many different levels, and I just wanted to communicate them and what it said to me. That’s about joy to me. That’s my absolute state of bliss – to be in service of an idea greater than myself, whether it’s changing perspectives of the way women look or being a badass with a sword. But that’s what I love, so that’s joy and humor to me. My interest tends to lie in drama, and finding the comedy in the tragedy."

Clearly, Christie is passionate about representation, and about her work saying something. It’s just one of the many things to love about her. “I think we’re seeing an awakening in society, and I think that’s really vital,” she continued. “The Internet has given people a forum to make their voices heard. People want to see themselves represented in the stories that are told…We need to see a realistic depiction of our world, and people can only really respond to what they’re given, and if we’re fed one thing, how can you expected to gather a strength if you identity with something outside of that?”

"I just think we just need to have a wider representation of the people in our world, and it’s really hard if you’re fed something that says, ‘You’re not included’…You have to make a leap of faith. You have to say, ‘It doesn’t matter if no one believes in me. I think that this is right.’ And then slowly, perhaps, other people start to respond to that, and an idea can gather steam, and that can help to change the world."

In fact, Christie is passionate about everything she does, starting with Brienne of Tarth. Somewhat famously, she arranged to have herself put forward for an Emmy nomination for her role in the final season of Thrones, a nomination she received. “The reason I did it was a testament to the character, and what I believes the character Brienne of Tarth represents,” she said. “And I was very lucky to play that part. And I believe she represents a woman outside of the patriarchy who lives life on her own terms who’s doing what she can to excel in her chosen field.”

But as satisfying as playing Brienne was, Christie is most gladdened by what others got out of her performance. “That is the greatest thing to come out of it, that people have told me they’ve been inspired by it.”

Image: Game of Thrones/HBO

Now that she’s gotten some distance from the part, what does Christie think of how Brienne’s story wrapped up in season 8? Does she think the show did Brienne justice?

"I have to say that I did. I loved that Brienne got to have her first sexual experience! (Here she screams “sexual experience” a bunch of times while the crowd roars, because why not?) I loved that she got to have something she desired. She elected to have that sexual experience. It was her choice. I love that her storyline for the final season wasn’t defined by that. How Brienne of Tarth ends up is she gets the promotion she always wanted and is alive. I got a promotion and I’m still alive! I loved that about her. It didn’t tear her down…It didn’t live on. It didn’t demolish her. It didn’t break her down. She went through a human experience and experienced part of the wide variety of human emotions that we can have that befits us being on the Earth. She achieves what she wants, she achieves her dreams and becomes Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. And she’s made a knight on her own terms. So yes, I was delighted."

Unfortunately, Christie didn’t take any mementos home from the set to remember the character by, not that she’ll likely need reminding of the time she played such an iconic role. “I have never taken anything and I don’t know why,” she said. “Why didn’t I take Brienne’s sword home with me? Because it would have been stealing! That’s why.

"I really really wanted Oathkeeper…The reason I’m not wearing it now is because I didn’t steal it, and if I had stolen it, I would be wearing it now."

Stealing is wrong, but Gwendoline not walking down the street and window shopping with a sword hanging on her hip is also wrong, so…

Christie also spared a thought for her other character who wears a lot of armor: Captain Phasma of the First Order. “The Captain Phasma armor was made for me exactly,” she remembered. She was thrilled when she saw what the costume department had in store for her.

"It was the idea of a woman wearing a suit of armor that was genderless; it shouldn’t have felt new but it was. The idea that a woman could fight in combat and not have her physical shape delineated felt really exciting for me and really really new."

Will Phasma turn up in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker? We’ll have to wait until December 20.

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Closer in time, you can see Christie in The Personal History of David Copperfield, which is already out. I hope to see her onscreen for a long time to come.

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