Carice van Houten on Melisandre’s unsavory interest in Shireen

Melisandre has always been a character who’s straddled the line between good and evil. Presumably, she wants to fight the White Walkers and save humanity from extinction. That’s good. But to do it, she’s willing to give birth to shadow babies and burn people alive. That’s bad. In “The Gift,” the latest episode of Game of Thrones, she again took a dip in the dark side of the pool by hinting to Stannis that the best way to ensure victory over the Boltons of Winterfell may be to, y’know, ritually murder his only daughter. After all, Shireen Baratheon has king’s blood in her veins, and as Melisandre (allegedly) proved before, king’s blood is extremely powerful.

Carice van Houten, who’s played Melisandre for four years now, talked with Vulture and TV Guide about the Red Priestess’ latest dalliance with moral ambiguity. “We are in quite some trouble at this point, because we are in the middle of a snowstorm,” van Houten said to Vulture. “And yes, it’s always been part of Melisandre’s plan, to have Shireen there as a sort of backup, for when the shit hit the fan. And now it sort of has. This is the last thing she’s certain of that will do the trick.”

It’s interesting to hear that it was Melisandre, rather than Stannis, who suggested bringing Shireen along on the march to Winterfell. In the novels, both characters are currently stationed at Castle Black, and fans have long speculated that Melisandre may soon act on some unsavory designs she has on the little princess. The fact that the show has reworked the story so that both characters are on the march to Winterfell suggests that something will indeed go down between them, although nothing’s set in stone yet. Still, we all should have been put on alert once the show went out of its way to make Shireen extra adorable. That hug she and Stannis shared in “Sons of the Harpy” was a red flag.

Through all of this, Melisandre has remained, nominally, a good guy. Van Houten talked to TV Guide about how she approaches playing such a morally murky character, claiming that although Melisandre does questionable things, she only does them because of her devotion to her god.

That’s the way I try to play her because it’s boring to play a killer that’s just a psychopath. That’s a different character, I think. The fact that she thinks what they have to do is for the better, that’s scary enough as it is. These big villains as we know them, they don’t see themselves as villains. They see themselves as heroes.

We’ll see how heroic Melisandre looks when and if she takes the life of cute little Shireen.

Van Houten also chatted a little about Jon Snow, to whom Melisandre has found herself strangely drawn this year. “I think she’s slightly distracted by Jon Snow, and I’m not sure if she even knows why,” van Houten told Vulture. “She might have seen something in the flames. But I’m not sure how clear of a vision that was, because she’s been wrong, sort of wrong before. I don’t think she’s a fraud, but I don’t think she sees exactly what she needs to see. Sometimes, it’s a little too blurry.”

It’s also worth noting that, of all the bad behavior Melisandre has gotten up to, van Houten apparently got the most blowback for trying to seduce Jon Snow a few episodes back. Burning people alive is one thing, but putting the moves on a handsome leading man is unforgivable.

• Published on 05/26/2015 at 2:00 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:04 PM CDT