Diana Rigg Talks Lady Olenna On “Random Roles”
The A.V. Club has landed one of the great dames of British Film and Stage, Diana Rigg, for the latest edition in its Random Roles series. The publication asked her about a variety of characters she’s played, from her first iconic role as Mrs. Peel on The Avengers through to her latest iconic role as the Queen of Thorns on Game of Thrones. When talking about Thrones, Riggs talks about the differences between the two roles, and the processes that go into making the show.
On the subject of The Avengers, Rigg talked about how she and costar Patrick Mcnee would improvise entire scenes and work out dialogue beforehand between them. For Game of Thrones, that just won’t work. In fact, the entire process of taping shows then and now is very different.
Nowadays it’s not film, it’s tape for television. If you’re filming something, and I remember this with The Avengers, you’d rehearse a lot, a lot, a lot, and get it, build up to the point where you’re using film [for a take] and it’s very special. When the director says “Action,” you’re very heightened. Film meant something. Tape doesn’t. Tape’s cheap. I had this conversation with the cameraman on Game Of Thrones. There’s not quite that heightened sense. The kids, the younglings, know that if they’re playing a scene and they forget their lines, they just pause. Nobody cuts anything. They just pause and speak again. If you’re on film, that’s undreamt of. It’s very definitely different.
Not that she doesn’t enjoy being on the show. For Rigg, one of her highlights of her time on Game of Thrones is getting work with a very high caliber of actors.
[Q]uite a lot of them I’ve worked with before. Charles Dance I’ve worked with before, Julian Glover I’ve worked with before. In the theatre. You pick up the threads with them again after many years. And it’s lovely that, for the most part, there are a lot of English actors. Mind you, I think we pitch up. We know our lines. We don’t demand sixty-foot Winnebagos. And we’re grateful.
One wonders what actor she’s throwing shade at with this comment!
Meanwhile, one of her favorite directors to work with so far has been Michelle MacLaren, one of the few women directors on the show. Her reasoning? Because MacLaren wasn’t intimidated by her.
I love being directed. You know, people think when you’re established that you come on with all guns blazing and you’re not open. But I love being directed. Because it’s another thought, it’s another fresh idea. You’re so grateful for an original idea that you haven’t had.
You should really check out the entire interview here. She’s asked about details for Season 6, but she won’t even admit that she’s in it, and insists that she hasn’t seen any scripts. She seems a little taken aback that people think she might die next season. After all, Lady Olenna is a wily old coot who killed the King under his family’s nose and got away with it. But she admits that, since Lady Olenna has gone through all of her material from the books, she’s basically outlived herself. “I’m on life support!”
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