Interviews with the stars of Game of Thrones

Slightly over a month ago, the wonderful people from HBO Asia let us know that they were meeting some of the cast of their hit series Game of Thrones, and asked if we had any questions to pose to them. Naturally we jumped at the opportunity, and managed to get three of our questions answered by them.

Now, in a lead up to the Season 2 premiere of the show on HBO Asia on April 21 (four weeks after the original US broadcast which ran last week – delayed due to subtitling and censorship) those Q&A interviews with five of the stars are being released, beginning with Charles Dance at the end of March and Michelle Fairly’s two days ago.

Check them out under the cut!

Charles Dance plays Tywin Lannister who in Season 2 replaces the late Ned Stark (played by Sean Bean) as the official Hand of the new King, his grandson Joffrey. The question I penned was the second question, which the interviewer flubbed as far as I’m concerned, but Dance is such a fantastic, collected man that he still managed to, in his own words, “make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear”.

Q: For fans of the book, your portrayal of Tywin Lannister has been extremely spot on. Why do you think you’re being so great at being Tywin as the ultimate bad guy, what attracted you to that character and how have you made it your own? I know you’ve answered it a little bit but the fans seem to think you’ve got it spot on as Tywin, and what attracted you to the character?

Charles Dance: Well I’m very glad that they think that I’ve got it spot on because I do now realise what a huge readership the books have. I know there are a great many people out there who have read them. To my shame I didn’t know that they existed even. I do now because a lot of people have spoken to me since the series has started going out. And people have been very complimentary. I can only put it down to the stuff I have to work with, which is the writing, you know. I mean, that’s what I go in with. That’s my principle tool, it’s the writing really, and the writing in this case as I keep saying, and I can’t say it enough, is really, really good, so I’ve got a good tool box to work with there. The way I look is just the way I look. I don’t have a false nose or anything, you know, it’s my hair such as it is, I have a beard. The costume department had done a great job on this. The look is phenomenal actually. It’s not just kind of standard medieval armor and leather. They’ve done things to it, to kind of heighten it. So I am helped a great deal as are all the other actors in this piece. And so a lot of people are responsible for the success of the series and the success of the characters involved in the series. I hope I’ve been doing my job long enough that I know when I’m doing it well and I know when I’m not doing it well. I try to do it well all the time, there’s no point in not. And if the fans of the books like what I do, then that’s terrific; and I hope I can continue to do that.

Recently released interview with Michelle Fairley, who plays the widowed Catelyn Stark also contains one of my questions, which this time the interviewer asks first. Fairley’s answers are generally shorter, as compared to Dance, but often the questions themselves seem rather generic, so naturally there’s not much to work with. Judge for yourself!

Q: For those who have read the books, the character of Catelyn Stark develops quite dramatically in the coming season. How do you prepare to play a woman who has lost her husband, and whose children and personal life are under constant threat?

Michelle Fairley: Well, any actor starts with the script, that’s the basis of where you put your foundation. The scripts from David (Benioff), Dan (Weiss), George (R. R. Martin) and the other writers were wonderful, and the thing about Catelyn I feel anyway is that she doesn’t show those emotions, she carries them around like a cloak; they weigh down heavily on her. So she is carrying all these stuff but she doesn’t show it.

Be sure to subscribe to HBO Asia’s Youtube channel for the rest of the interviews with Emilia Clarke, Kit Harrington and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau over the next two weeks!