Hannah Murray (Gilly) on Castle Black, reading the books, and living with Grey Worm

Hannah Murray, who you probably know best as Sam’s wildling love Gilly, was recently interviewed by Time. While Murray is involved with several non-Game of Thrones-related projects, it didn’t take Time long to ask her about the show. Hannah has really come into her own as Gilly, bringing depth to a character that was one-dimensional in the books. In fact, it could be argued that Gilly in the books is relatively unnecessary, a device to help further Sam’s over-arcing story.

Time asked the actress if she preferred shooting scenes at Castle Black, or in the far north beyond the Wall.

“I think I do prefer being at Castle Black actually, just because the set is amazing. It’s so complete.”

She explains how, if you’re standing in just the right spot at Castle Black, you can’t see any of the cameras or crew and it actually feels like you are in an actual fantasy world, whereas it was harder to get immersed while filming scenes beyond the wall.

Hannah was also asked about her relationship with John Bradly (Sam), and if she had made any other friends from the cast.

“I’m really good friends with John, and I also have friends [on Thrones] who I was friends with before we started the show. I did Skins with Joe Dempsie [who plays Gendry].”

I wonder if she even knows where Joe is. I mean, last we saw of Gendry, he was rowing out to sea in a rather small boat, seemingly headed nowhere. I have this image in my head of Gendry rowing endlessly never going anywhere, stuck in a tiny rowboat with no food or water…poor Gendry.

Also of note: Murray and Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), used to live together!

“My friend Jacob Anderson plays Grey Worm—we used to live together. We shared a flat with another actor. I think we were still living together when Jacob got the part, and I was so happy he was going to join.”

I can see it now, blogs everywhere are going to be shipping Grey Worm and Gilly, even though the two will probably never meet on screen. Well, at least not in the foreseeable future. Time went on to ask Hannah if she had read the A Song of Ice and Fire books.

“I’ve had different policies on this. Originally I did read the books, and I read them as we did them.”

She’s since changed that policy, and now only watches the show, because she loves it more. She also doesn’t want anyone to spoil anything for her, although she did get drunk one night and ruin her friend’s birthday.

“I got drunk and told him a bunch of stuff. He was just like, “Why are you doing this to me on my birthday?”

I’m sorry, but I find this absolutely hilarious. While it was a complete dick move on Murray’s part, that’s the risk you take being friends with a cast member on Game of Thrones, especially one who’s read some of the books.

There’s much more to the interview, which you can read in its entirety on Time’s website. For example, Hannah talks about which character she would most like to interact with outside of those currently clustered at Castle Black. She talks about her desire to work with strong female characters, and even teases a few scenes she has with one this season. Last night, we saw her learning how to read from Shireen Baratheon. Can a scene with Melisandre be far behind?

• Published on 04/20/2015 at 3:30 PM CDT
• Last updated on 04/20/2015 at 3:32 PM CDT