With less than a week to go, the Game of Thrones actors and writers are out promoting season 5 with interviews galore. Here are the highlights of the newest interviews including Kit Harington, Nathalie Emmanuel, Carice van Houten, Benioff and Weiss, and the new cast members of House Martell:
Last night, Kit Harington appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers. In addition to talking up GoT, Harington showed his funny side in this hilarious sketch involving mopey Jon Snow attending a dinner party with Meyers. Check it out:
Harington chatted about a number of topics on Late Night including this bit about his time in Belfast and the well-regarded local extras working on the show.
- Nathalie Emmanuel talks to the New York Daily News, offering hints at Missandei’s development this year. “She doesn’t express a lot of emotions until this season. But because love is an emotion that she’s never experienced before, it’s okay to show how distraught she is.” The Daily News conducted the interview on a day when Emmanuel was filming “an intimate, deeply sad scene” with Emilia Clarke and Jacob Anderson. Of the connection between Missandei and Grey Worm, Emmanuel says, “Their whole relationship is so unsaid,” and that “Tension is in every scene I do with him. It’s a great tension — it’s been so much fun to play that.”
- “I know that we’re wavering off the books,” says Carice van Houten in a new interview with The Daily Beast. “The thing that I really like about the coming season that we’re going to shoot now, Season 6—if I’m still alive, no spoilers!—is that we’re going completely off the books. Everyone is in the same boat since there are no books anymore. And it’s fun because now the book readers will be in the same boat as everyone else.” Reminiscing about birthing a shadow in season 2, the actress says, “It was quite a shock,” and then adds, “But you’re in for a big treat this year if you like shocks.”
van Houten also appeared on KTLA introducing this new season 5 clip of Jon and Melisandre:
- David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are interviewed in Rolling Stone about the path of Game of Thrones free of the books and have this to say about the plan of ending after seven seasons:
Benioff: We’ve always said that, but we have to talk to HBO and come to an understanding. There’s a temptation to keep going with it because we’re still having fun, but you don’t want to ruin it by tacking on a couple of extra years.
Weiss: The big thing is, this is a show with a beginning, a middle and an end. We know what the end is, and we’re heading toward it now.
Benioff: We’re not sure whether it’s going to end up being, say, 70 or 75 hours — but it can’t be 100 hours. It would start to feel like a bogged-down mess.
- New Zealand’s The Dominion Post brings us some choice quotes from the newest cast members.
Alexander Siddig, on playing Prince Doran Martell:
Pedro’s way of playing it is very much how I had to play it so he set the tone. Keeping that sense of charm and fluidity and the Latin oomph while you are in a wheelchair is tough because you use the whole body to express yourself. It was a good challenge.
Siddig says of the Sand Snakes:
They are vicious, and brilliant at being vicious, and have been taught how to fight and kill at 12. So they are tiny drone jets that deliver missiles. They are going to be great fun. I think they are going to be audience favourites.
Rosabell Laurenti-Sellers, who plays Tyene Sand, admits to having qualms about filming one scene:
I was absolutely terrified at first because I have a scene where I take my top off, and I was really freaked out about that,” Rosabell Laurenti Sellers. “They told me it would be a closed set, and it was really chilled and relaxed. I was positively surprised because everyone was very respectful.
DeObia Oparei (Areo Hotah) addresses the criticisms some had of his casting in the role:
In the books, Areo and white and so there are those fans who think he should be white. I think it’s a good conversation to have on why is this character being played by a black actor when it was always written for a white character. We’re having this thing now with Idris Elba possibly playing Bond and people saying Bond should be white. We’re shifting. There is a paradigm shift going on. We are beginning to go, ‘Let me cast you because you personify [the role]. You don’t have to be black, you don’t have to be white. Let me cast you because there is something about the way that you portray that [character] that really sings for me’.
Of the much-discussed “nipple armor,” Jessica Henwick (Nymeria Sand) says:
I’ve got to be honest, in the lighting, my first costume fitting, I didn’t notice it. I didn’t notice it until we were in the bright, wonderful Spanish light [where part of the series was shot] and I was, ‘Hmmm, that’s weird. What are those? I didn’t see those before’.
Finally we finish with another funny video: a mashup parody of Game of Thrones and Trojan’s Fire and Ice condoms (yes, these are actually a thing) created by the Shorts Show, starring Nick Snow as Littlefinger, with The Knick‘s Chris Sullivan as The Mountain.
Jon Snow dinner skit was hilarious.
I can’t stand the KTLA guys. Cool clip though!
Hahaha, I love this Jon Snow video XDD
I don’t know if it qualifies as a parody but Sesame Street had a “Game of Chairs” segment
Carice has those interviewers totally in her thrall. I love it! That’s a star baby.
Damn right.
ace,
I am going to show this to my four year old twins tonight! My son is always telling me that he’s mature enough to watch GoT, which is, of course, not even close to true. This may assuage him a bit 🙂
Old news here… look down an article or two and you’ll see it.
That’s the first time in a while that I’ve seen where D&D have sounded at least slightly open to the “extended final season” option.
Dinklage on The Daily Show tonight.
After watching Nathalie Emmanuel in Fast 7 I am now convinced she’s the most beautiful woman on GOT.
Jesus, Sam Rubin really is the worst.
Sean C.,
I assume they’ve begun writing the season 6 scripts, so they might be figuring out more and more how long they really want the show to be.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe Areo’s race was specified in the books.
Damn I never knew Kit Harrington could be that funny. Awesome stuff
Damn, Kit’s sketch was fantastic.
The statement that they still have to negotiate with HBO on the end of the season and Weiss throwing in the “70 or 75 hours” choice would seem to indicate they think that the split final season is probably going to be the likely compromise.
Finally got to see Lady Stoneheart albeit in a condom commercial. Stonehard for Stoneheart.
That dinner sketch was awesome. 😀 Kit really nails Jon there.
So many great interviews.Oh just start the damn season,before I piss myself.
One of Roose Bolton’s leeches,
I’d only seen the Kit at a dinner party one until just now. That condom spot is amazing.
I made a point to stay up for Kit’s appearance with Seth last night and I wasn’t disappointed. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve watched that skit today. Fallon (for me) normally has the best skits but this one ranks right up there. Kit was brilliant throughout… and I love how he can do that frowning smile (when he’s talking about giants in the Crossfit portion). It would be great if Fallon would follow it up with something similar on Thursday night with Nikolaj, but sadly, he’s scheduled as the second guest which typically means he’s given less time. :/
Dear god, I hope not. Just 10 episodes a year is bad enough. I despise these split seasons (last year’s measly 7 episodes of Mad Men came off as a tease).
Better just to decide on 8 full seasons if they want to go another year.
If they allowed for longer episodes in the final season (65-70 minutes each, maybe witha 90 finale) but delayed the airing date by a few months to allow the production to breathe, I’d be fine with that as a compromise. It beats waiting a year to conclude a two-part season.
John M W,
There are a lot of ways to do it but you could have a set up where the 7th season is delayed by a few months which would allow them to shoot all of the say 14 episodes. Then they could air 7 episodes in the Fall and the final 7 in the Spring (kind of like how The Walking Dead splits up their seasons) and you wouldn’t have a massive gap in the middle of the 2 parts.
That Seth Meyers video was gold. Kit, love how he can get into character when he dons a black cloak. 🙂
I don’t want a split season, hate a 7 or 8 episode season x 2, to me its 80 or 70, no in between, of course my vote is for 8 full seasons.
Ugh. If I lived in LA, I could never watch these people. Hard to believe that’s the best talent they can find in LA. Makes me appreciate Chicago news even more. Carice was great, tho.
Seth Meyers is such a fanboy–I love it!
The condom thing made me laugh out loud. The phrases at the bottom–lol.
4 days and counting…sigh.
Outlander just restarted the second half of it’s first season last Saturday with the first eight episodes airing in August and September. At the end of episode eight knowing I had to wait until April to continue I was pissed and didn’t/don’t understand why they did it. However, they did have eight episodes and just a six month wait for eight more… Now that it’s back on I’m happy. If they did similar with GoT I’d be upset during the wait as well, but when it’s all said and done, I’d be happy to have more to watch.
tyjon,
8 seasons is not an option because of the contracts (and probably D&D’s unwillingness) so the choice is 70 hours or an extended split season which would give you an additional 4-5 episodes.
Why people wouldn’t want this is beyond me. “No! I like my show to have less episodes and to end earlier!”
Loved the dinner party scene. Absolutely loved it.
Did you notice that Kit’s wine glass was pretty much drained over the course of the skit? D&D have said that the cast likes to drink… 😉
Cersei’s Wine Goblet,
Yes he is. Carice should’ve pulled a Sam Jackson and called him on his shit.
Once upon a time, 2-3 month waits between runs in series was pretty common! That probably qualifies as ancient history by now, though.
Is it just me or Kit Harington is getting better and better at playing Jon ?
Ozymandias,
He really should be pretty good with Jon after 5 years.
The clip with Jon and Mel was great, I thought the “Are you a virgin?” line would be awkward when I heard about it, but now having seen it, it was good.
Jessica Hennwick made my day day with her quote:
So funny. This gave me a few chuckles lol
Also liked Kit Harrington & Seth’s party. It should be made into a spinoff series. I would totally suport that.
Henwick talking about the nipple armor made me laugh a lot when I was putting the post together.
Yeah I don’t think it was. I assume Oparei is either going off the artwork which has always depicted Hotah as white or the fact that a lot of book fans assumed Hotah was white and flipped out. Who knows, maybe even the show writers assumed he was white. Either way, Oparei’s response is pertinent and well-said.
Kit Harington is a truly underrated actor. For all the crap he took in the first few seasons, I’m about ready to make a guarantee that HE ultimately, is the real breakout star from this show. This guy will make a fortune in his life as he is a great actor and perfect for action films.
Al Swearengen,
I was convinced of that the moment I saw her in the s3 casting video at SDCC in 2012. And after ep. 408 I knew she’d be the reigning champ. She is PERFECT.
Greenjones,
That would have been epic!
BTW I found the Kindly Man’s actor from the Arya clip. Cedric Henderson Duncan.
http://www.hrca.eu/male.htm
http://www.spotlight.com/search/?q=cedric+henderson&ajaxSearch=0&x=0&y=0
Also Allan Gildea is “Master of Arms” in a Michael Slovis ep. http://www.universalartists.co.uk/Producer/Artist.aspx?ID=86e2d114-9fe1-40e2-9c18-0e99d5baf3d7
And Paul Kennedy as “Eyrie guard”, also in a Slovis ep. http://www.spotlight.com/interactive/cv/1/M90567.html
Another nice quote from Kit on Stannis and Jon in season 5, sounds promising:
“He’s a natural leader, (but) he’s up against a very astute politician in Stannis,” Harington says. “He stands his ground, but he’s a bit of a nervous wreck underneath, because this man is more calculating and more experienced.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2015/04/07/kit-harington-jon-snow-has-big-season-on-hbo-game-of-thrones/25378573/
I see Kit’s dinner party sketch is already upwards of 1.1m views in a day. That’s quite quick work 🙂
My apologies if someone has already mentioned this article, but it’s a great read… I think Maggy the Frog wrote it
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/apr/06/marxist-theory-game-of-thrones-lannisters-bankers-sex-power-feudal-westeros-revolution?CMP=share_btn_wa
Poor Jon. Trying so hard.
King Tommen,
I called it. With all the talks of HBO wanting more, and D&D insisting that they won’t go beyond 7 seasons, this has to be the best bet. How many episodes per half-season, though? I’m guessing something between six and eight (hopefully the latter).
asdf,
John M W,
That’s not an option. 7 seasons means they have to completely renegotiate all the actors’ contracts- getting a seventh season was hard enough, an eighth would require even steeper raises. And we’re talking about the final season with all the climactic battles, dragons vs White Walkers and what have you. The show needs all the money it can get for its final season (there’s only so much HBO can give them, they have a bunch of other shows to fund).
And at this point, the show doesn’t need a whole eighth season. D&D have planned the story and made cuts and deviations with seven seasons in mind. They’ll have to make stuff up to get a whole season of extra material.
Best case scenario would be that season 7 would have 12 straight episodes, but they barely manage to produce the 10 they have within the year. Splitting the season is the right thing to do.
Greenjones,
Greenjones,
Just bumping these so Luka Nieto will see them.
BTW the disproved summaries for eps. 4-7 from however many weeks ago are still up on GoT wiki.
Clob,
That’s actually an interesting idea. It’d be fitting if the last (half) season of GOT began in Winter and ended in Spring, parallel with the story.
Greenjones,
The spotlight link leads nowhere…? Is he credited as “kindly man” anywhere? It’d seem a weird choice of words, considering he doesn’t seem kindly at all in the show.
Thanks for the rest though! All in the wiki now.
lol
Loved the Jon Snow kit
Especially when they reference things not in the show or books (which is why I enjoyed some Telltale dialogue re the Red Wedding for example)
As such seeing a depiction of Jon Snow impersonate Joffrey poisoning or Mountain smashing Oberyns head was hilarious
All it showed was how I’d searched him and found the agency he’s with. Just as a note, on IMDB he’s Cedric Henderson and to his agency he’s Cedric Duncan. Since Spotlight lists him as Cedric Henderson Duncan, I thought it might be pertinent to link as well.
Greenjones,
😉
He’ll be “TBA” in the wiki until 5×02, I imagine. He’s not exactly a “Kindly man”, so we don’t know how he’ll be credited.
Luka Nieto,
You could credit him as “no one”.
here is a lower quality video of Peter’s visit at the Daily Show till we get the official one
jentario,
Except it won’t result in an extended Seventh season (except in name). It will really end up being two mini-seasons, like most other shows that have split their final “season”. And, for my money, that ends up being dramatically unsatisfying.
As for the split seasons
They may have to split season 7, atm they film in the later Summer Spring but obviously towards the end they will have to presumably film in the Autumn/Winter which simply means a later airing date in the year as the current run of all ten episodes starting in April may not be practical
They already had to downplay filming in Iceland because of the lighting conditions
This can make sense, really it is a shortened 7th season, but if the last few episodes all relate to the climactic battles of the climactic war it is better to have it somewhat standalone rather than awkwardly have the start deal with drama and the end dealing with the climactic war/s, eg Battle of the Wall took one entire episode and I can imagine there would be a variety of these going on at once
It would be like the trilogy of movies but as a “second half” of the finale season
ok, here is Peter Dinklage video at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (with GOT clip in the beginning
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/2i2h2k/peter-dinklage
GRRM can now stop lobbying for 20 seasons + 3 moves so he can have the time to finish WOW.
Aisha Tyler has put up a lengthy interview (1 hr 45 minutes) with David Benioff as the latest episode of her “Girl on Guy” podcast series today. It’s all interesting, especially if you’re a writer, but the discussion of Game of Thrones starts at the 1hr 10 minutes mark:
http://girlonguy.girlonguy.libsynpro.com/girl-on-guy-179-david-benioff
jentario,
I imagine he’ll be touch and go which is why Missandei will be worried and we have the scenes of her kissing him will lying down are. There are also probably the scenes she’s describing in her interview. But he’ll end up pulling through to fight another day.
Now this doesn’t mean he can’t die later in the season but it won’t be in E4.
If they split the final season, 17 episodes would be fun. Maybe 10 and 7? I suppose that would just be a shortened season 8, but at a certain point it’s just contract semantics. Just seems silly to talk about 75 or 76 episodes and not go for the sevens.
Kilgore Tully,
Hehehe, actually I like the 77 episodes idea quite a lot !
Bufferzone,
Thanks for the link ! As a writer, I’m always fascinated to hear D&D talk about their background.
Loved the dinner sketch… and kit grabbed the wine glass by the stem for which I’m eternally grateful to him 🙂
dave,
Totally agree with you! Kit is a great actor, smart and funny man.( can’t wait his storyline in this season and 7 days in hell, HBO, June) This vid is awesome.
Bufferzone,
Thank you, great to hear! Haha, David said like 3 times he maybe overdid it with the Theon scenes… I totally forgive him now. Really, maybe one scene less would have fixed it…
The dinner scene was hilarious and awesome!
(I’ll even forgive them for the mistake 😉 after all, it’s funnier to say “killed at his own wedding” than “killed at his uncle’s wedding”…)
Ha, yes, if he’s as good in season 5 as he is in this sketch, it will be great.
Pissed off gloomy badass Jon is sexy. And he even got to be funny here.
ace,
Thanks! I love Peter Dinklage and I love Jon Stewart, but this was not a very interesting interview, was it?
Areo is Norvoshi so yeah, he’s white skinned
lalla,
That’s likely, but an assumption nonetheless, isn’t it? Do we know his family’s lineage? Are there no black people from Norvos, as there are in any other place, at least in this world? Unless Areo’s skin color is specified, saying he’s white is kind of like saying white is the default, and that’s kinda troubling.
We can only say that it’s very likely Areo is white in the books, but we cannot confirm it, at least not based on textual evidence. His skin color is not detailed, as far as I remember, and his hair is white, because he’s old.
I wonder why it’s a big deal they made him black, or even maybe gave him a different origin (Summer Islander?), yet the fact that he’s many years younger hasn’t gotten a single mention. I wonder. Well, I don’t, not really.
Luka Nieto,
Linda will rip u apart for this post
That dinner sketch is priceless.
And even the rest of the post is fun and informaative to read.
4 days… 🙂
The difference between The Tonight Show and Late Night is Jimmy Fallon & The Roots. However, Kit & Seth made the best GoT parody ever. Excellent job. Kit is great in a comedic role & on GoT. Looking forward to the mockumentary. I love that a Sand Snake commented on nipplegate.
Wow. The dinner with Jon Snow video has reached 2.2 million views in 1.5 days… Apparently the Brussel sprouts were amazing!
Sue the Fury,
Pretty sure it’s a reasonable assumption made on the fact that Norvos is in the northern part of Essos and he’s from the Bearded Priests, not a lot of older coloured men have long white beards.
His show counter-part being coloured is also perfectly reasonable though.
Benjen,
Norvos might very well be white people but him having a white beard is meaningless. Black people have white hair and white beards (even long ones) the same as white people do.
Btw, you might not want to call people “coloured,” that’s sort of not done these days.
ace,
Oh wow, that was incredibly cute. XD
Not too bothered about Areo being black, it’s not specifically stated over and again etc
Plus it works well in TV context, if he had been white it would have been confusing as people would consider him a Westerosi (show doesen’t seem to be distinguishing from the Meditarranean-like Rhoynar and the “indigenous” Dornish for lack of a a better word who are medieval white like the rest, eg I think the second house of Dorne Yronwoods are white)
In this case because he is Black it really emphasises the fact he is completely foreign to the Westerosi peninsula in a TV medium (they really have to over-emphasise some stuff to the point where it is even problematically cartoonish eg Mace Tyrell is an cartoonish buffoon in order to establish a strong contrast with Olenna but this issue is it becomes unbelievable he would then be allowed anywhere near negotiations with the Iron Bank)
Plus in terms of viewer demographics having a black action figure is helpful as Saladhor Saan is good for jokes and dialogue with Davos but isn’t exactly in many combat situations
In some respects they seem to have missed an opportunity with the Sand Snakes to make them really diverse, but oh well
Ironically the one issue if you can call it that is the axe. It is Dornish design and jeweled up which befits a Royal bodyguard. It looks great and I’m not complaining too much but I always had an image of Areo’s axe as a bit more plainer and “Germanic” if you like as would befit sober minded fighters being taught in a kind of Convent situation