People have had lots of opinions on the Sand Snakes over the years regarding their inclusion in Game of Thrones, their narrative in the story, and for book purists, ever the eager beavers, it has provided an endless source of complaining that four sand snakes were lost in the adaptation. But you know what seems to never come up in all the mindless jabbering amongst book purists? The performances of the wonderful actors hired to portray the Sand Snakes. Jessica Henwick (Nymeria Sand) in particular, has jumped to the top of the pack and firmly left her mark on the legacy of Game of Thrones.
Right from the start, Henwick was feisty. Always ready to go, she was excited about jumping on board with Nymeria’s whip as well as all the Sand Snakes’ unique weapons.
Nymeria: Why do we play? I’m better than you [Tyene}, I’ll always be better than you. Have I ever missed once? I don’t think I have, I can’t recall. You must love humiliation or pain. Which do you love most? Humiliation or– (slaps) — pain? That one hurt didn’t it? You going to cry? Give up, little sister.
Tyene: You’re going to miss.
Nymeria: I never miss.
Tyene: You will. You’re thinking too much. Now you’re nervous. ‘What if she’s right?’
Nymeria slaps at Tyene and Tyene gets out of the way in time.
Nymeria: Luck.
Tyene: Now it’s my turn.
Nymeria: You’re too slow. You’ve always been too slow.
In this scene from season 5 episode 9, The Dance of Dragons, when Nymeria is playing a game with her sister, her competitive spirit comes out. Henwick imbues such a fierce ‘here to play’ mentality, that you can’t help but keep your eyes off her. In fact, Henwick herself has said that it was her favorite scene to film:
“I loved my scene with Rosabell [Laurenti Sellers] where Nymeria and Tyene were playing the slapping game. That was a highlight. We slapped each other so many times our hands were really swollen at end of the day. It was quite funny.”
No stunt doubles required for this scene, eh? It appears Henwick is quite the method actor if her hands were so raw after filming. It sounds silly, but I quite mean it! Her willingness to endure pain for the role showcases her dedication, and Jessica Henwick was nothing if not fully dedicated to the role of Nymeria Sand. Prior to their debut appearances in season 5, the three Sand Snake actors, Henwick, Sellers, and Keisha Castle-Hughes, reportedly spent four and a half to five months training!
“I had quite a few sessions in Belfast working with some Bulgarian guys,” said Henwick…”Upper body strength—that’s what you need for a whip—and coordination, and good timing. It’s a really scary weapon because you’re just as likely to injure yourself. I’ve whipped myself many times.”
It’s like I said – dedication to the role! You try whipping yourself multiple times and see if you still want to take on a multi-season arc as a series’ resident whipmaster. But with Henwick at the wheel, her perseverance was hardly surprising. The fierce warrior in her was always evident, even in her quieter scenes. Shortly before Euron’s armada tore the Martell/Greyjoy fleet asunder, Nymeria casually tells her sisters:
“You can have Cersei…I want the Mountain.”
It’s one of her final lines of dialogue in the series, but it so perfectly encapsulates Henwick’s command over the role. She says that she wants to murder an 8 foot tall (currently undead) warrior with the same demeanor one might express a preference for one dessert over another! Following this, she would go on to have one final fight scene, in which Nymeria would go out fighting. Every fierce breath, every piercing gaze, every fiery proclamation that came from Nymeria owes its existence to the one, the only, Jessica Henwick. She exited Game of Thrones as the warrior she entered it: with an unrelenting attitude and a commitment to excellence.
Luckily, Henwick’s been working nonstop both before and after filming her death scene in GOT. Since its debut in March 2017, she’s been widely considered the best part of Iron Fist, playing dojo owner and all around badass Colleen Wing. She’ll be reprising her role in this summer’s The Defenders, something for which I am very excited! Oh, and need I even mention that she played a part in a little independent film you might have heard of called Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens? I don’t care that it was a tiny role – when your agent calls to offer you a part in Star Wars, you take it, and you tell anyone and everyone you know that you are in freaking Star Wars!
While Nymeria Sand is no longer with us, Jessica Henwick’s career is just getting started. She has hit the ground running and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. My most notable accomplishment before turning 25 has been remembering to put my pants on before I leave the house in the morning; Henwick’s has been to hit the trifecta of Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I truly cannot wait to see what what this incredible powerhouse actor has in store for us next!
For anyone who is new to Watchers on the Wall this year: Curtain Calls are where we pay our respects to the actors and say goodbye in a respectful way. We have a tighter moderation policy in these posts and do not permit off-topic postings, including rants about the character or actor. Thanks!
Thank you Jessica! You did your best with the material provided and I enjoyed it! You went out fighting and I applaud your work on the show!
Love this!!! I wish her success always.
I had no issues with the Sand Snakes, and I actually thought she was the best out of all three.
Shes beautiful! 🙂
😀
(Seriously, that would be an extensive list!)
Double seriously, they did fine with limited material. Despite said rantings, the Sand Snakes never were more than bit players supporting a secondary character, who in turn was a foil for Jaime. So, they were supporting support. Add to this that the Sand Snake characters were a bit outlandish from the word go. However, the individual actresses did fine with the limited material that they had.
I loved Jessica’s enthusiasm from the beginning and I’m glad to see her career blossoming so much. I agree she was the best part of Iron Fist, easily!
Jessica is a wonderful actress, easily the true star of Iron Fist. I wish we could’ve seen more of her, perhaps more of the very different personality to her countrymen that Nymeria seemed to have; more tranquil, calm and collected, less hot-headed. But the fact that this could be perceived at all is a testament to Henwick’s abilities, which I hope and expect are utilized to a greater extent in other shows and films. This may not be a popular sentiment, but I will miss Nymeria, and I’ll always regret not getting to know her a little bit better.
Wimsey,
You’re back! Where have you been? 😛 There’s a back-log of great stuff you missed, if you wanna check it out.
At least she had a nice final fight scene. 🙂
Good luck with The Defenders! Coleen was the best character in Iron Fist!
She was the only good thing about Iron Fist and I look forward to watching her kick ass in The Defenders. Glad the role on GoT opened all these doors for her.
Right? It’s so disheartening that we have been talking about the Water Gardens fight coreography and direction for years now, and I’m 99% sure the great coreography by Henwick and the others in Stormborn won’t get a hundredth part of the attention, which it very much deserves! They did a great job.
She played a really small character well. I think the negative reaction to her was just circlejerk like almost everything else in this fandom.
I thought that Jessica stood out the most amongst the Dornish characters, except for Oberyn. Her enthusiasm really shines forth. I truly wish D&D had cast her in a meatier role in GoT.
What is much more amazing is that Jessica screen tested for the role of Rey in Star Wars (which eventually went to Daisy Ridley) and she was on the shortlist to play Rey. When she lost the role to Daisy, she got the resistance pilot role to make up a little for the disappointment. She said in an interview, that during the screen testing process, she came to know who Rey’s parents are, always a very hot topic in the Star Wars fandom. 🙂
Kay,
Wow, I didn’t know that. I hadn’t considered it at all, and I loved Daisy Ridley so much, but based on Nymeria and Colleen Wing, Henwick would’ve been a great Rey!
I enjoyed Jessica’s performance – easily the best Sand Snake, for me. Glad she was able to go down fighting!
She was my favorite of the 3 sand snakes. Its a pity the writers and the editors could not reach full potential of this intriguing character. Not very many memorable scenes of the sand snakes but perhaps the one that stands out is their conversation with Lady Olenna in the season 6 finale where they get schooled by the queen of thornes.
Love Henwick in everything I’ve seen her in. A lot of people will mention her battle scene in 702 and rightfully so, but I loved the Mama scene on the ship.
I’m really sad we didnt get to see the political side of Nymeria, it would have been a nice way to showcase her appart from her sister by having her the manoeuvring, political, “Littlefingery” brain of her sisterhood (including Ellaria).
Too bad, but Nymeria has been my favourite Sand Snake in the show and I’m sad to see Jessica Henwick go away.
Thanks to Jessica for adding to the rich tapestry that is GOT. Loved the Olenna scene, so quiet and respectful, and happy she was so fierce with that whip in her impressive final fight scene. Best of luck to her!
Yes, Nymeria was the one Sand Snake I was most angered we didn’t have a chance to see more of.
Blaming the Dornefail on writing at last, I can only sit in awe at the dedication and capabilities of Jessica Henwick and despair that she never got a good story.
Good luck with better future roles, Jessica. Hopefully at least that training for GoT will prove to have been useful.
Luka Nieto,
Yes, Jessica was one of the final contenders for Rey, as was Maisie Richardson-Sellers, whose consolation role in The Force Awakens ended up mostly on the cutting room floor (she was the Resistance Rep on the planet Hosnian Prime just as it is about to blow up!) And also, I too love Daisy Ridley, who is now in numerous movies, lol!
I would really not say that the GoT role opened up doors for Jessica Henwick. It’s more that she was generally becoming quite recognized outside GoT, and I hope she continues to do even better.
On a superficial level Jessica is stunningly beautiful, and on a less superficial level I really wish she had been given a greater showcase for her talents. Deffo my favourite Sand Snake, despite Tyene’s, erm, assets
She is a very good actress and very beautiful, I wish her role in GoT would have been another character, less.. controversial.
Is she the only asian (or of asian descend) in GoT thus far? For all the talk about PoC, asians and hispanics are really the under represented minority.
You guys all burned yourselves now for Keisha’s curtain call with the “Jessica was the best SS” stuff. 😛
I think it was tough going into it playing a character on the show from parts of the books that many people already didn’t/don’t care for. The show writers needed to do something spectacular with their inclusion or limit it. For the grand scheme of the story it wasn’t necessary to do a lot with it, so they didn’t. (Too bad George hasn’t/isn’t limiting it as well. More isn’t always better.)
I look forward to seeing Jessica in future projects.
Over the last 4 weeks, I have spanned over 75% of the world by longitude, and over half by latitude! Crap, I’m tired: next time, I’ll take planes rather than my bike…. 😛
I finally saw Episodes 1 & 2 last night. Again, I’d like to thank Jodie Whittaker: I never heard a thing about Thrones because of the “I’m not a sexist, but OINK! OINK!!! OINK!!!!” outcry!
And I agree: the Snakes last fight scene was pretty good. I’ve never understood how people fought in those situations in reality: figuring out who to hit would have been almost impossible!
O_o,
For notable roles, Kae Alexander played Leaf. But let’s stay on topic. 🙂
The book Sand Snakes were not so dislikeable (and book Ellaria –
ok she’s not a Sand Snake -definitely wasn’t) as their show counterparts I suppose it was time constraints that prevented the adaptation of the book Dorne plot.
Before GoT [I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before] I was aware of her in “Silk” playing a character called Amy Lam in a barristers’ chambers (I rather liked what I saw of the show though members of the legal profession found inaccuracies in relation to how actual barristers’ chambers work).
Off topic, Jessica’s father writes fantasy. He’s reasonably well known though not as well as GRRM. http://www.athanate.com/
I watched the GoT sea battle again on YouTube because I found the lighting somewhat dark first time round (can’t afford to upgrade to new equipment at the moment). Some of the comments under the video depressed me – some definitely harked back to the school of when men were men and women were glad of it (allegedly) – that REAL men would be able to demolish women in a physical fight blah-de-blah (because that was what Euron did to the Sand Snakes – taking 2 of them out with their own weapons). Somebody else had posted to “chill” because it was a TV show. I had thought that they used one of those harness things like they used for “hanging” the mutineers against Jon Snow but in an interview Jessica said she was thrown over a fork lift track to lift her up (and that the whip round the neck got mighty tight at one point).
Slightly off topic I don’t think it’s always necessary to promote strong (thinking of strong in the sense of having a strong personality, not necessarily physical strength) females in a show by making the male characters drippy.
Jessica really inhabited the role. Her presence will be missed. Glad to see the return of Curtain Call!
Three cheers for Jessica! She did a wonderful job with what was at times a thankless role. Her enthusiasm for the show was always infectious ❤️
Best of luck to her in the future!!
It took me several viewings to realize how I had seen her before. Of course, it took me several viewings to realize who was playing the Iron Fist, too! She clearly has what it takes to play leads well.
If the showwriters wasted time “realizing potential” of quaternary characters like the Sand Snakes, then the story would be smothered with extraneous character development. The role of this sort of character is to be a foil for the important ones: it’s what they do, not who they are that is important. Ultimately, Henwick’s role was to be a foil for Jaime Lannister, nothing more or less: she created quandaries for a main character, and that main character’s unraveling of the quandaries fed the story. (I have no idea what the Sand Snake’s role is in the books, and I am very skeptical that they have any purpose other than gratuitous world-building there!)
At any rate, this is the sort of role that gets a young actress noticed: these are small scenes, but they make for a good audition tape, as she got to do a bit of action and a bit of dry comedy. Yes, 99% of the audience do not know the name of her character (I certainly didn’t, but they’ve been Curly, Larry & Moe to me since 2005!): but that’s really not important at this stage.
She was quite good with the material she had.I wish her luck in her other projects but she won’t need it.She is a good actress.
Goodbye to Jessica who brought a real energy and enthusiasm to the role of Nymeria Sand. It’s fantastic when you see actors are actually excited to play the roles they have been cast in, and Jessica certainly does that with the roles she has played. Acting is after all rather silly (not that there is anything wrong with that), so to see some actors make it seem so serious is rather tiresome. I’m sure Jessica’s enthusiasm only adds to the portrayal of the characters she plays, especially one like Nymeria, and I hope it helps her on to bigger and better roles in the future. I genuinely think she has the potential to be a big movie star (more so than some of the leads in GoT), and it would be great for her if that happens. I’m sure she would have made an excellent Rey (but I loved Daisy Ridley’s portrayal, so I can’t argue with the choice they made), but I’m sure there will be other equally exciting opportunities for her in the future.
Well, she’s the 2nd biggest character on Iron Fist, so your hope either is already fulfilled OR is so potent that it bent space & time! 😀
Wait, what if… hear me out…. Nymmeria…. warged … into….
…. the third wolf on the left in Nymmeria’s pack? I think that it blinked kind of funny.
Sue the Fury,
I forgot about Leaf 🙂
She was very good, some of the lines of the SS were terrible, but that’s not the actresses’ fault
Nym had a fine death. I for one adored the fight between Nym and Obara vs Euron. The final shot of Nym dangling from the bow was brutal, very GoT worthy.
From everything I’ve read and the few snippets of “Iron Fist” I’ve seen, I agree that Jessica Henwick is the real star of that show. (So sorry Ser Loras.)
I can easily see her on the same career trajectory as Gal Gadot.
Count me in the minority, but I would’ve liked more of the Sand Snakes rather than nothing at all. It was really the sparseness of their scenes that hindered their development.
Anyway, I look for great things from Jessica Henwick. Great screen presence, great personality , and exotic look.
Well done to her
There’s a lot of controversy over the Sand Snakes but for J Henwicks part she did what was asked of her and did it nicely
The fact that what was asked of her was a little odd and not as good as the books in the sense that they seemed to have taken the book Sand Snakes with individual character, melded them into one and then divided by 3 so…
The plotline was also odd, eg they compounded their S5 Dorne issues and then just killed off Doran and Areo
I reckon that if they had included the cut scenes of S5, and then did the Dorne in 4 episodes I think it was originally planned it would have been a bit better, as all of the characters weren’t given enough time to get fleshed out
As for the last “Mama” scene, has had some criticism but was necassary to show firstly the Sand Snakes were on the ship, secondly point out and remind the audience that Oberyn was their father but Ellaria is mother only to Tyene as pointed out by the fact the “Mama” taunts cut straight to Ellaria criticising Iron Islands ale
Good luck to Jessica in the future
Bon voyage, Jessica. You breathed life into some not so great dialogue, and made your mark in what could have been a forgettable role in the hands of someone not so vibrant.
And bravo to you for your commitment to the physically demanding aspects of the role. I found myself holding my breath when Nymeria encountered Euron on the ship and seemed for a minute to be possibly getting the best of him. I may have even uttered a very quiet “Yes!!” But alas, this is Game of Thrones, so we know how it ends.
Congratulations on the wonderful career you have started. I will be watching for you in the future. Thank you again for being a part of our nerdy little universe!
Jessica Henwick is absolutely a rising star, and it’s easy to see why. In every interview, behind-the-scenes video, and social media post that I’ve seen of hers, she always seems warm and friendly, full of life and passionate about her work, but never averse to having a bit of fun as well. I loved that recent interview that she did in character as Nymeria, fully committing to the bit, only to break and offer up the tiniest hint of a smile at the end. It was too charming for words.
http://watchersonthewall.com/game-thrones-cast-season-7-alliances-conflicts-jessica-henwick-answers-interview-question-nymeria-sand/
Speaking of committed, that’s a perfect word to describe Henwick’s approach as an actress. In both physicality and emotion, she’s absolutely dedicated to her craft. Those stories about how hard she had to work to master the whip – which is an extremely hard weapon to wield at all, let alone as well as she does – are intense. Those hard-won skills will serve her very well. And the bonds that she forged with her onscreen sisters, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Rosabell Laurenti Sellers, appear to be genuine. I can only imagine how much fun they had together. I’m glad that if Obara and Nymeria were going to go out, they got to do so together, as part of a truly epic fight scene that I will remember long after this show ends.
What’s more, I appreciate at how every opportunity, Jessica always expresses gratitude about how playing the role of Nymeria Sand in Game of Thrones allowed her to jump start her career in this ruthless and unforgiving business. And what a career it will be! As David points out in his excellent tribute, Jessica has already booked roles in Game of Thrones, Star Wars (as Resistance Fighter Pilot Jess “Testor” Pava, who’s extremely cool), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One could make a case that those are the three biggest entertainment properties in the world! I’d say that she’s doing all right for herself. 😉
I genuinely enjoyed Jessica Henwick’s role on Game of Thrones, and I consider her performance as Nymeria Sand to be a worthy inclusion in this world that we all love so much. I will always be glad that we got to see her play her part in this epic story, and I sincerely hope that in time, everyone will be able to look back with nothing but appreciation that this incredibly talented young actress was part of this show, and always will be. Sometimes, you catch lightning in a bottle. You can’t always keep it there, but we can be happy that we got to see its brilliance flash before our eyes before it was gone.
Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken. And onward!
https://twitter.com/JHenwick/status/889314474892550148
This really is just a variant of Chekhov’s Dictum: don’t develop characters if that development is not going to be important to the story. Nymmeria’s job (on the show) was to create issues for Jaime. Subsequently, she just became a “face” for the crowd: that scene had a lot of death, but deaths work best if we have some idea who we are seeing die. It’s sort of like the Star Trek episode, where we get the new red shirt, three lines providing some rudimentary development, and then his (or her in a couple of cases) brutal death by energy being, salt-sucking monster, acid-excreting silicon beast, etc. WELCHIE!!!!!!
(For all the uproar about named characters dying so frequently in this series, we have to remember how much more impact those have relative to the dozens and even hundreds of deaths we get for each “named” death.)
Guys, you’re definitely getting into rant/debate-y territory. Don’t.
The first curtain call of the year is always kind of sad.
I never noticed that she was in Star Wars TFA. I’ll have to look for her next time I watch it.
The Sand Snakes may not be the most popular on the show, but at least she got a great death scene and the description of her training with the whip definitely makes me admire her.
Farewell, Jessica!
Wish her all the best! She’s a beautiful actress and did well as Nym. Sorry to see her go as it was good to see someone of Asian descent in GoT. She will do well especially since she already has roles in Marvel Universe.
I admire her dedication to the training with the whip (as she stated, it’s a very tricky weapon to master.) I truly enjoyed her fighting scene against Euron and the final scene with her hanging from the prow (it was great in a gruesome way).
I wish her good fortune in her acting jobs to come!
Nah, Alleras is going to be more interesting… 🙂 Looking forward to that.
——-
Thanks for playing Nymeria, Jessica! You got one of the greatest names in GoT/ASoI&F lore (plus, it was so cool we got two Nymerias in this episode!). I always feared for a fighter with a whip in a battle of swords, axes and firebolts, but she held her own. Glad she went out on an exciting scene.
What storyline though? Maybe it does get interesting in TWOW, but she appears in something like a couple of paragraphs so far.
Back on topic, Jessica did what she could with a bland role she was given.
Mr Fixit,
Agreed! I mean, these are quaternary characters, here: none of them have storylines or anything really close to one; at best, they are a piece of a plot. On the show, it was a supporting piece for Jaime. It’s even fuzzier in the books because it’s not clear that there are any real protagonists in the Dorne stuff: it seems to be all plot and no story as a result. This “Sarella,” if I remember what character it is, is a bit (bit!) character in Sam’s storyline.
Henwick did not get deprived of some juicy role because of the changes from the book. If the Sand Snakes had been the characters that some people here are imagining, then the roles would have gone to bigger named actors. However, every novel has dozens and dozens of undeveloped minor characters like the Sand Snakes. When these novels are adapted to screen, then these tertiary roles provide the opportunity unknwons to get exposure that might let them later get the roles where there is actual character development and even dynamic development. For any future adaptations, Henwick is now in line for a Sansa or even Daenerys level role; but the Sand Snake level roles (i.e., quaternary characters) in that future adaptation might very well cut, and even if you’ve read the book, you’ll notice it only if you are a real fan of that book.
I never read the Iron Fist comics, but my take is that Henwick basically scored an Arya-level role from that series; not the lead, but one the prominent secondary characters that often become lesser protagonists in adaptations. So, this stone was a stepping-one.
When Obara and Nymeria died, I was actually surprised to find myself a little sad. I guess I cared about them more than I thought I did.
Whatever the problems with the Sand Snakes, it was no fault of the actresses. I thought they did perfectly fine with what they were given.
In interviews and social media, Jessica and Keisha both seem like such warm, lovely people. I wish them the best of luck in the future.
I saw Jessica in Iron Fist and, while that show had its problems (though I personally didn’t find it as bad as most people did), her character & performance was one of the consistently solid things about it. I look forward to seeing more of her in The Defenders. And as has been mentioned several times here, her dedication to her work is admirable.
I’m glad the Sand Snakes at least had a good death. They fought very well in that final battle (the choreography there was, in my opinion, some of the best the show has had). Unfortunately for them – Euron had armour… and a big fucking axe.
Jared,
Yes ! Great in-character, in-costume interview of Jessica Henwick! I hope she starts a trend, because it was really fun to watch her answer questions as Nym.
Goodbye Jessica! Nymeria had a certain diplomacy that had limited time to be shown, but she did it well. 😊
For some readers, the premise of a woman disguised as a man to be trained at the Citadel is inherently exciting. We have two whole long novels left for Sarella/Alleras to be developed. (Those about to type ‘If they ever get written,’ you can spare me the snark.)
I think part of the reason the SS and Dorne in general got so much criticism is that Pedro Pascal/Oberyn was just SO good in his small role that he set the bar really high for the rest of the Dorne story. It’s a shame because Indira, Jessica and Keshia are all such great actresses. I’m glad to see that they are getting more roles as they all deserve it.
I remember when it was announced that she would play one of the three Sand Snakes. I was really curious how she would do it. Not sure what went wrong in the show, but she sure had style and you could see she’s a good actress. I would have loved to see her fighting a little more. There are not so many female warriors, I like the combination of being sexy and a good warrior at the same time. I haven’t seen her other movies, but I’ll check them out if they are on Netflix in my country.
Jessica did a good job with such a small role. The final fight scene with Euron was so good.
nvm
Well done, Jessica. I look forward to seeing you again in future roles.
Such a good and pretty actress so dedicated to her role and enthusiast about GoT.
I wish her all the best !