Game of Thrones was a huge show, to the point where even actors who only played minor parts saw big career bumps. Take Pilou Asbæk, who played the joy-riding Euron Greyjoy in the final three seasons of the show. In the near future, he’s acting alongside Sylvester Stallone in the superhero film Samaritan, appearing in an adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, and starring in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. “Game of Thrones changed my life,” the actor told NME.
That said, there are a few things that Asbæk wishes had been done a touch differently. Although Euron does appear in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books, the TV version didn’t have much in common with his book counterpart, at least outside of the introductory scene where he throws his brother Balon off a bridge.
“The introduction on the bridge was f**king brilliant,” Asbæk said. “They took lines from and I wish we would’ve maybe got a little bit more inspired by how the character is in the books, but that just didn’t fit the characters and the arcs that they wanted. I loved: ‘I am the storm brother, the first storm and the last’… those words were so powerful.”
"I wish we would’ve gotten some more sides to Euron Greyjoy, so it wasn’t pure horniness or craziness or evilness, but also the black magic – it came out of power, wanting power. Like a crazy pirate coming-of-age story."
In the books, Euron is indeed a creature of black magic; he mainlines Shade of the Evening, has delusions of grandeur, and is generally weirder. On the show, he’s more of your standard issue Westeroi a**hole. Whatever works.
Euron Greyjoy actor psyched for Game of Thrones prequel
Asbæk has left Westeros behind, although he sounds excited for the prequel series House of the Dragon, which is airing now on HBO and HBO Max. “I hope it’s going to be a massive success because of all the people who’ve put such effort and work into it,” the actor said. “There’s two TV shows that I’m really looking to: House of the Dragon and The Rings Of Power. I love those kind of stories.”
It’s going to be an exciting couple of months.
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