What It’s Like to Stunt Double on Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is known for many things, from the political intrigues of the palace, to the frozen zombies of the far north. But one of the major components that makes this show one of TV’s biggest (and most expensive) is the size and scale of the feats of derring do done by both characters and actors. Not only is the cast enormous, with hundreds of extras for battle scenes, but they also employ dozens of stunt actors and stunt doubles as part of the production.

And though we haven’t seen any scenes at the scale of needing a stunt double yet this season, the trailers and images have promised that battles, like winter, are coming. Professional stunt doubles like Bobby Holland found themselves employed by the show for the first time this year. Holland’s CV is pretty impressive, from stunt doubling for Daniel Craig in the last few James Bond movies and Chris Hemsworth in the Marvel series. One might think that after working on such high profile franchises, TV would be a step down. But not when it comes to Game of Thrones. According to Holland, he was thrilled.

I’m a massive fan of the show anyway. When I got the call to go and work on that show, I was quite excited because, as I said, I’m a fan of it, but also to be part of the biggest TV show out there is a lovely thing to add to your CV. I tried not to listen too much to how the scenes were actually being played out because I obviously don’t want to ruin it for myself, but I did the best stunt job I could.

So he tried not to pay attention to the scenes he worked on. So does that mean he has no spoilers for us?

Well, not totally. He admits he wasn’t doubling for anyone in particular, which means he got sent around to several locations.

I was a general stunt performer in all the big battles. I did some wire work, some fire stuff, some water stuff, some fights. As a general stunt performer, we did everything across the board on Game of Thrones. I was in Seville for two weeks and Belfast for seven weeks, so I worked on the show for just over two months, but we were pretty much nonstop the whole time.

So he stunt performed in two locations—Seville, which we all know as Dorne, and then Belfast. That “seven weeks” in Belfast suggests that he probably worked as part of the major Hardhome fight set piece, which we know filmed for over a month. As for Seville, we know Jaime and Bronn are on their way, and we’ve seen them tussle with Dornish fighters in promos, so we can guess their road will be full of stunts. I can’t wait to get there and see it for myself.

• Published on 04/27/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT