Roger Ashton-Griffiths on preparing for Mace and getting papped
Dawn recently spoke with one of Game of Thrones‘ newest major cast members, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, who will be joining the show as Mace Tyrell.
The actor chatted about his preparation for his role, and shared his thoughts on being involved in a huge production and on getting ‘papped.’
Ashton-Griffiths confirms that he hasn’t read the A Song of Ice and Fire books and in fact hadn’t seen any episodes of the television series before being cast, though he did watch season two after doing some filming. He acknowledges he would have played his scenes differently if he had seen season two beforehand.
He tells Dawn, “On the first day in Belfast, I was expecting some kind of an introductory pack telling me who was who, how they were related and what had happened until now. I got nothing. I woke up in the morning, wore my costume, went on to the set and was told ‘Oh, good morning! Here is your place. ACTION!” The scene was one with Tyrion, Tywin and Cersei and the actor adds, “I didn’t know they were all related!”
When asked about the first thing he noticed, Ashton-Griffiths says, “There was this monstrous big chair made of swords — which I thought was quite nice … I didn’t know it was the Iron Throne!”
On getting papped, with press picking up on photos of him and the cast out together: “The first weekend after filming that scene where I had no idea what was going on, we went out for a few drinks and we got ‘Papped’ that first night! Within a week of us being there, it was in the papers…which was a bit odd.”
On being a part of a huge production like GoT: “We took over a public park for a month and installed this huge outdoor set. I couldn’t help asking the director: ‘All this just for a bit of telly?’ And the director responded: ‘No, no. Think of it as a 70-hour movie!’”
Visit Dawn.com to find out which scene Roger Ashton-Griffiths most enjoyed doing. However, Unsullied viewers be aware it’s a hint of a spoiler. Ashton-Griffiths also talks about visiting Pakistan, playing Hitchcock and what it was like working with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Day-Lewis.
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