Carice van Houten on staying warm, weird, and wigged-out
In the wake of Sunday’s episode featuring a very seductive scene with Jon Snow, Carice van Houten spoke with both Vanity Fair and MTV News about Melisandre this season, as she exchanges the warm studio interiors of Dragonstone for the wintry exteriors of Northern Ireland, where Castle Black and the Wall reside.
In both interviews, van Houten isn’t shy about the irony of playing a character who is never cold while she herself is constantly freezing during nude shoots (such as the scene from “Sons of the Harpy”). But she has a good attitude about nude scenes in general, acknowledging to Vanity Fair that they’re “never sexual” and that “at some point, you’re professional enough to just do it.” That’s pretty much in line with how I’ve heard other celebrities talk about sex scenes in film and television, and it’s definitely a positive one for Carice to have with how much time her character spends naked and/or in full-on seduction mode. (Hilariously, when asked if she’d done anything different for the nude scenes this year, she said, “This season I thought ‘maybe I should go to the gym’ but I realized that after I shot it, so…” Well, there’s always next year, Carice!)
Carice also drops a hint about more shocking scenes coming this year, but says that there’s been nothing as weird as the shadow-baby from season two (which was filmed in a most bizarre manner in an actual cave in Northern Ireland, probably one of the very few times Carice was not in studio prior to this year). She revealed at least two characters she would like to see sit the Iron Throne: “in the Disney version of this it would be Daenerys.” But she also admires Sam Tarly’s kindness; “I wish we could live in a world where Sam Tarly is king.”
Oh, and the wig? “Half my character is the wig,” she admits. At least she and the rest of the ladies have the wig option; Kit Harington, on the other hand, will be living with his glorious locks for a little while longer.
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