Game of Thrones Actors React to Season 5
Game of Thrones Season 05 was easily one of the most insane, dramatic, and brutal in the shows history. With numerous surprises, character deaths, and storyline outcomes. With the season set to come out on March 14th, the cast of the show reflected on what they thought of some of the big moments:
“Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy/Reek): “Game of Thrones is probably a pioneer in that respect, isn’t it? It just breaks all those rules. Season 5’s most jaw-dropping moment for me was Myrcella’s death. I just thought it was beautiful that Jamie finally got some sort of love, and then the second he actually gets it, she dies in front of his eyes!”
Iwan Rheon (psychopath Ramsey Bolton): “I thought the Hardhome episode was immense. All of a sudden it just turned into some mad zombie action thriller. As an actor, the rape of Sansa was horrific to have to do. That’s the darkness that this show has, and it’s brutal. I was dreading it and had a very sleepless night before we shot that.”
Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton): “[Sansa’s rape] kind of had to happen, really. It’s orchestrated by Roose and they have to have a child, and she’s not going to fall in love with him. It was brutal and I think brilliantly handled; not trivialized or sexualized in any way.”
Carice Van Houten (Red Witch Melisandre): “The burning of Shireen. It was a cruel, cruel, cruel scene. We read the script and looked at each other like-”
Liam Cunningham (Ser Davos): “-what the f*#k?!”
Carice Van Houten: “I was happy that it was going to be such an epic scene but at the same time I was like, ‘Oh my God, all the Joffrey haters are going straight to me!’ I got a lot of death threats. Like, many.”
Liam Cunningham: ““Die, bitch, die!” But the fan base on this is fantastic, they have such a sense of irony.”
Carice Van Houten: “So first when Shireen got killed, they said ‘Die, bitch, die’ and then when Jon Snow died, they said ‘We’ll forgive you if you bring him back…!’”
Dean-Charles Chapman (King Tommen Baratheon): “Jon Snow! I weren’t expecting that, at all!”
John Bradley (Samwell Tarly): “It was genuinely a horrible moment to read that script, because dramatically, and in terms of the show’s logic, it’s heartbreaking. Then you start thinking of personal ramifications – Jon Snow’s not going to be here, oh my God, Kit’s not going to be here. I always say when [the cast] say goodbye to characters, we feel it harder than anybody else, saying goodbye to actors that we love as well.”
Liam Cunningham: “People look at certain extraordinary moments like Shireen and the rape of Sansa and it’s easy to look at those in isolation and say, ‘There’s no need for this’. The bottom line is, this is a show that’s written for grown-ups by grown-ups. The violence in this show is disgusting and appalling, because violence is disgusting and appalling. And the whole philosophy is, we’re going to show you interesting characters and you’ll understand the complexity of these morally grey characters. Arya’s a serial killer and she’s a f*#king role model! She has a list of people she’s going to murder and people go, ‘I want to be like Arya!’ It’s kind of bizarre but it’s lovely to be on that rollercoaster.”
Ian Beattie (Ser Meryn Trant, killed by Arya at the end of Season 5): “The bastard thoroughly deserved everything he got, but it also made me worry about Arya’s character, she’s going down a very dark path. When she killed Meryn, she didn’t just kill him, she tortured him. Yes Game of Thrones is brutal. But the world is more brutal than things that happen in the world of Westeros. I don’t think anything even comes close to Game of Thrones and I think it’ll be a long time until anything does.”