Iain Glen and Emilia Clarke on Dany and Jorah’s emotional goodbye
In last Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones, Jorah Mormont’s spying past finally caught up with him. His royal pardon was delivered from the Hand of the King into the hands of Barristan Selmy, and before Jorah could plead his case, Daenerys had already made up her mind. What followed was a truly heart-wrenching scene, as Daenerys could hardly bear to look at her once trusted advisor as she delivered his second sentence of exile.
Iain Glen spoke with Making Game of Thrones about the difficulties of shooting the emotional scene in Dany’s throne room, that was full of subtext.
“It was a difficult scene to play. Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] are succinct writers so it was absolutely jam packed with subtext which I had to try and access from what was basically a two-and-a-half page scene. The directors put the onus on us to discover our way through scenes, but [director] Alex Graves brought some wonderful ideas, and that was one of them, to speak through each other during that part of the scene.”
Iain admits that the scene was made even more difficult because not only was Jorah saying goodbye to Dany, but he was saying goodbye to his filming partner, Emilia Clarke.
“There is a great deal of heartbreak. It’s about us separating, which is what’s going to happen. Emilia [Clarke] and I went through a great deal together. We’ve been together for four seasons. We’re the only two that have really been together from the start.”
In a brief interview with Entertainment Weekly, Emilia shared the same sentiments.
“Emotionally for me it was so intricate. Jorah’s been with me since day one, season one. The scene itself is unpleasant because I — Emilia — know that what Dany is doing is wrong, And it was the first time I’ve ever felt that. I’m looking at Ian Glen thinking: ‘Don’t leave!’ I’m banishing him and all I want to do is cling to his ankles. It was really hard it marked one of the biggest decisions of this character to date.”
It’s unclear what Jorah will do next, as we saw him riding away from Meereen under the threat of death. Iain says that Jorah is “bereft,” but he believes that he will adapt, wherever the road takes him.
“Ser Jorah’s a survivor. He’s lived away from home for many, many years. He’s very good at adapting — he adapted well to the Dothraki, and adopted the way they live and even an element of their dress. He knows how to incorporate himself into different worlds, which is part of the reason why he was so helpful to Dany.”
For more from Iain’s interview visit Making Game of Thrones.
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