20 takeaways from Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon, behind the scenes of Game of Thrones
By Daniel Roman
17. The fight between the Mountain and the Hound was torture to film
We’ve talked quite a bit about Miguel Sapochnik, who shot many of the show’s most expansive and breathtaking battles. Considering how many hours Sapochnik spent in the mud and rain filming set-pieces like the Battle of the Bastards and the Long Night (which took a record-breaking 11 straight weeks of night shoots), it surprised me to learn that the scene that gave him the most trouble was the stairwell showdown between Sandor Clegane and his big brother the Mountain.
“My least favorite experience on Thrones,” Sapochnik said of the fight scene. “Hard set, tired crew. Exhausted actors — though Rory [McCann, who plays the Hound] saved the day. There were so many details that you would never know about looking at it, but they were the stuff nightmares are made of.”
Hafþór Björnsson, the Icelandic strongman who played the Mountain in seasons 4-8, also remembered it as a grueling experience.
"It was some of the hardest work I’ve had to do, bar none. I lost over thirty pounds of body weight during the fight. Makeup started four a.m. and went on for hours and hours. A big part of my body was covered in prosthetics and there were lenses in my eyes. I was in full armor, and it’s a proper heavy armor. We were working for up to eighteen hours per day, and a great deal of the time we were shooting the fighting; the whole scene, doing the same actions again and again and again. Rory McCann was great to work with, and I am proud to have been an integral part of one of the most epic fight scenes ever created."
Also consider that this was done after those eleven weeks of night shoots that I mentioned for “The Long Night.”
Thankfully, as both Björnsson and Sapochnik noted, Rory McCann brought a lot of excitement and energy to the sequence. In the end, it did end up being pretty awesome.
“I’m very happy with the way the Hound’s story ended, thank you very much,” said McCann. “My last filming days were the fight. I’m absolutely sure I’m going to be limping for months. It’s a glorious death.”