Aidan Gillen reveals more Season 5 clues, talks Jonathan Pryce

Aidan Gillen wants you to know he’s not his character, and has little in common with puppet master Petyr Baelish.

Sitting down with the Italian site TVzap a couple of weeks ago, he was ostensibly there to promote his new film, which had it’s debut at the Berlin Film Festival last month, “You’re Ugly Too.” But of course, as always, all anyone wanted to ask him about was Game of Thrones.

We’ve had the interview translated. Gillen gives us a bit more detail on Sansa, his take on his character and typecasting fears, which character is his favorite, and what new actor he’s excited to see on the show. Check it out below!

According to our translation, Gillen said:

“Game of Thrones by this time is a world-wide phenomenon which as been airing for years and in my career I have often played characters of this type: cold, manipulative, malicious in short; but my personalty is much more diverse: I am a father, I have two children, and for me this is a fine opportunity to work with a child, in a role nearer to my my fuller existence — even if Lord Baelish has paid the bills.

There was a time I disliked when people associated me with the name of this character; I couldn’t support it because indeed I am an actor, not that character. In my career I have done a few roles not recognizable [as him, his real self], one surely is this of Game of Thrones, another Tommy Carcetti in The Wire, in England also John Boy of Love/hate, and I’ve understood that changing course after years of a character for me will ‘shut out people’ [he’ll lose part of his audience], and in reality my privacy is not violated; beyond that if I believe in a particular role and make it creditable, I mean I have been courageous [to do this].”

As for Season 5:

“What can one say about the evolution of the character of Lord Baelish? This year I can reveal yet less than in the previous ones: at this point of the series the authors are distancing themselves even more from the books and are inventing many things; henceforth in this season they are framing many acts that are not in the novel. Last year they did not make a big different if you reveal something of my character, because it was wholly in the books, even if reading it on Wikipedia can reveal new information, instead now all is new. I can say that my character and that of Sansa Stark start on a trip towards ‘the Valley of Arryn’ to take control of the House of Arryn.

For Lord Baelish it will be more adventurous, more journeys, and an important relationship/rapport with Sansa Stark; that’s all I can say for now. Well maybe, I can say that there will be brought in a new character. The High Sparrow, played by Jonathan Pryce, who is a fantastic actor and this role is perfect for him; a spiritual leader type, a ‘sort of Gandhi,’ even if ‘not as good as Gandhi.'”

Bringing up Pryce, caused the interviewer to ask if Gillen would be playing along side him, as filming news has revealed that Gillen’s character will be in King’s Landing this season. Gillen said he couldn’t answer that, but he did add in regards to Sansa

“In the last season she had to defy me, in the new season she will be subjected to great changes; above all with regards to her hair. And she will change her outfits; she will be wearing more black and many feathers. She will become more sinister [a ‘darkonetta,’ basically a made up word that means ‘Dark Girl’ or ‘Dark Sansa.’] We are going to have a gothic version of Sansa.”

As for who he is rooting for in particular:

“I root for the good. Arya Stark is my favorite character; I hope that the characters will be sincere and honest insofar as they can be, and produce their best selves. I do not say that this will make them succeed; even if Arya has undertaken a darker role, and has begun to kill. Beyond that I like the characters of Cersei, above all how the script has been interpreted by Lena Headey.”

Check out the full article here.