Alex Graves talks “Breaker of Chains,” one of the greatest days he’s ever had filming

Whether celebrating a death years in the making, solving a murder mystery, arguing consent, or applauding Tywin Lannister’s general badassery, Game of Thrones has kept the internet buzzing for weeks.

Director Alex Graves, the man responsible for bringing the events of the past two episodes to life, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his experience filming “Breaker of Chains.”

Graves says that during his work on last night’s episode, he experienced one of the greatest days he’s ever had while filming.

“To film Charles Dance kidnapping Lena’s son with words for three minutes of monologue — and to have Lena keeping up with him at the highest bar of acting possible with no words at all — was a joy. It was directorial crack to do that scene. It was one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever shot… Because you’re sitting here going, “This is so dysfunctional and bizarre.” She’s a wreck. Tywin is really going on about this historical stuff, and you slowly start to go, “He’s kidnapping her only boy,” because she’s not going to have him anymore. And then he succeeds, and then Jaime comes in and he rapes her. That was like — you read the scene and go, “Wait, who’s directing this?””

The scene between Jaime and Cersei (which Graves says contained subject matter that he is “never that excited about going to film”) was made even more disturbing by Joffrey’s dead body being visible in nearly every shot. Graves said that this was completely intentional, and explains why it was so important.

“He is their first born. He is their sin. He is their lust, and their love — their everything. If he’s gone, what’s going to happen? Jaime is still trying to believe as hard as he possibly can that he’s in love with Cersei. He can’t admit that he is traumatized by his family and he’s been forced his whole life to be something he doesn’t want to be. What he is — but has to deny — is he is actually the good knight.”

Graves recently commented that this episode would feature one of the best speeches in the series, which had many guessing what he was alluding to. We now have the full quote, which was in reference to The Hound justifying his robbery to Arya.

“That’s one of the best speeches in the series, and it’s the times they live in. The Hound is saying, “Arya. You’re a lot like your father. Don’t be too much like your father or you’re going to end up dead.” And that’s a very important turning point for her. It’s really a question of who is she going to become? This girl who has seen her family murdered over and over again? What’s going to happen to this traumatized kid, and how is she taking it in?”

For more from Graves, including his insight on the importance of the Wildlings’ attack, and what it was like shooting Dany’s grand finale, visit The Hollywood Reporter.

• Published on 04/21/2014 at 3:46 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:42 PM CDT