Premiere Day Roundup Part 2

Just because it’s premiere day, doesn’t mean the news stops flowing. Here are some more quick hits from the latest cast and crew interviews, including a brand new behind-the-scenes video to keep you occupied. Only a few(!!) hours to go.

• David Benioff and Dan Weiss promise the NY Daily News one very expensive scene to end the season, and a battle that challenged the production team more than ever before. “There’s a scene in the final episode that definitely represents the highest dollars-per-second cost we’ve had so far. And then there’s a battle — not a single scene, not the greatest number of actual bodies on the ground, but definitely the most challenging in general, production-wise.”

• HBO Canada has released an interview with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau discussing his character and Season 4 at length. On the implications of Jaime having lost his hand as he tries to fill his role in King’s Landing, he says, “He’s now the Lord Commander. That demands some respect, that you are the strongest; you are the best. And he isn’t. Clearly it’s a big problem for him and it’s also something that he can’t really talk to anyone about because if he says it out loud, it’s out, and he doesn’t trust anyone not to spill the beans, so to speak. I mean people can see that he hasn’t got his hand, but they don’t know how it will affect him – can he fight with his left? All those things. Well, you’ll find out.”

• Rose Leslie tells the NY Daily News that she 100% backs Ygritte’s decision to fill Jon Snow full of arrows. “This is a classic tale of female betrayal. I feel all women who have been wronged can relate to that because you feel so foolish, so silly for falling for it. People come up to me and go, ‘I can’t believe you got Jon Snow with three arrows!’ Are you joking? Of course she did. He betrayed her. I fully back (my character) Ygritte for those actions, 100 percent.”

• Gwendoline Christie spoke with the Edmonton Journal about Brienne’s continued evolution, comparing her journey to that of becoming a woman. Gwendoline says, “It’s just a really interesting character. Initially she’s just a fighting machine, and then we see the woman start to emerge. Her journey, as I see it, has become the journey of what it is to be a woman, what it is to be outside of convention and not have who you are dictated to you. It’s an exciting character, and not one that comes along very often. In the fourth season, once again, she’s put in different situations you wouldn’t expect, with people you wouldn’t expect. You can never quite predict the outcome.”

• Samwell Tarly may be feeling the consequences of his poor decisions in Season 4. John Bradley tells The Hollywood Reporter, “When I first read these scripts for season four, there were parts in it where you see Sam in a different light than you’ve ever seen before. There are moments early on in season four where certain parts of Sam’s neuroses and his paranoia and some of the less appealing aspects of his personality come to the fore for the first time. For the first time we see him make some pretty selfish, self-centered decisions that are beneficial to nobody and could be utterly catastrophic.” John also spoke with MTV News about the ability of the Night’s Watch to defend the Wall.

• Rory McCann tells Entertainment Weekly that we’ll learn a lot about the Hound in Season 4. “It’s the first time, I think, that The Hound is going to reveal his colors a little bit — you’re going to really see what makes him tick. We know he’s damaged goods, we know there’s a few layers to him, he’s carrying around a lot of anger with him and he’s got the scars to prove it. But he’s kind of on his own journey, so he’s going to reveal a lot, and probably in interactions with Arya, he’s going to come out and explain what makes him tick. I think the viewers will like that. It’s taken him four years to come out and say, “this is the way I am, this is the reason.” I think the idea was to bring in my character a bit slower, and that’s what happened.” Rory also teases a “trail of death and destruction” and the “biggest fight I’ve ever seen.”

• On the surface it may seem like Arya is out to avenge her family at any cost, but Maisie Williams assures us that her feelings run much deeper. Maisie tells IGN, “The key thing to take away from Arya this year is that she has nothing, absolutely nothing. She feels nothing. She’s realizing that nothing makes her happy and nothing makes her sad. She’s just lost in her head a little bit, a bit lost inside her brain. She doesn’t really know what she’s supposed to be feeling. She’s confused as to why she doesn’t feel sad anymore…She’s not bloodthirsty for revenge. She’s not crazy at all. She’s just like, “Why? Why do I feel the way I do?” People don’t read enough into some of the characters’ decisions, I think. They just think it’s very black and white. It’s never black and white on Game of Thrones.”

Edit: A new behind the scenes video has snuck in just ahead of the premiere. This one contains a lot of new footage and cast interviews, with extended looks at Oberyn Martell, the Boltons, the Tyrells, and more!

• Published on 04/06/2014 at 6:15 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:43 PM CDT