The Cast Remembers | Game of Thrones: Season 8 (HBO)

Let me give you some advice, bastard.

Never forget what you are.

Wear it like armor.

It can never be usedto hurt you.

When I first heard they wereinterested in me for a fantasy show, I went, “Ugh.

No.

” I had an inkling, readingthe first book, going, “Oh, my God, this is.

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this is amazing.

This.

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this could really kick off.

” MAISIE WILLIAMS: I was quite young and I had such a big imagination.

In those scenes when I was younger, I would really convince myselfthat I was there and it was happening, you know.

I'd never had any experienceof acting before.

I went to a very theatricallybased drama school.

We did three hours of camera training in three years, but then my fourth hourin front of a camera was day one on Game of Thrones.

KIT HARRINGTON: My first day on set was Castle Black.

My first scene was, I think, just a very quick scene where I'm walkingdown the ramparts and I was so nervous.

EMILIA CLARKE: Yeah, I remember my first day on set! Oh, my God, I felloff a fucking horse! (LAUGHS) Jesus, this was my first job.

This is, like, the first thingI ever did and then they stuck meon a horse! Oh.

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I was falling off the horse, trying to act, still.

-Oh.

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A Khaleesi.

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(LAUGHS)-DIRECTOR: Okay, let's do itagain, please.

NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU: Well, I remember my first scene we shot from the pilot.

And thatwas, uh, the king's.

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arrival.

You know, the king rides in on horseback and he has to get off his horse.

And his robe was enormous.

And the horse rides in;he's like.

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(GRUNTS) And then, “Halt.

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everyone.

“And then they run in with.

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like, like a ladder.

They help him down and they run out with the ladder and then: “Carry on.

(GRUNTS)” SOPHIE TURNER: I vaguely remember it.

It was, like, Sean Bean and Mark Addy and Lena and I remember beingso overwhelmed and.

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terrified.

LENA HEADEY: I remember everybody clear.

I remember baby Sophie, and baby Maisie, and baby Isaac.

And now, they're.

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you know, out there, full-grown.

(CROWD JEERING) The most shocking scene.

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that I didn't see coming.

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(SCREAMING) Stop him! Stop! From then on, I startedto distrust the show as to, like, whether they'd killmy favorite character or not.

I think the most shocking wasprobably.

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-(STABBING)-(GRUNTS) .

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my death.

The Hodor moment I couldn'tquite believe.

MEERA REED: Hold the door! Hold the door! ISAAC HEMPSTEAD-WRIGHT: That was such a sort of, “Oh, my God!” RORY MCCANN: I watched the Red Wedding and I didn't really read into it in the script.

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of what happened.

I think I just.

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did my bit and went, “La, la, la.

” And then, when it came out, I remember I watched it in the morning.

I'm a big guy, a big, tough guy, but, guess what, I burst into tears.

That wasan absolute shocker.

I remember just watching, going, “No, no, no, no! No, no, no, no! What!” (CHUCKLING) It was brilliant! Do I have to call youLady Stark now? Yes.

My favorite day on set would be the day that I wasreunited with Maisie.

WILLIAMS: That day on set, I.

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I've never laughed so much in my life.

It was so much fun.

It was the daywith the wheelchair– I've still got that video.

Jeez.

Me and Sophie just messing around on, um, (CHUCKLING) Bran's wheelchair.

COSTER-WALDAU: I think the most fun scene we shot was.

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Season seven, we shot this big sequence: the loot train attack.

And we shot that in Spain.

It was such a beautiful.

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location.

And there was something about being outside every day and being on horseback; I love riding.

(SPEAKING VALYRIAN) Season Three, getting the Unsullied, was the first time that I, Emilia, got to be, you know, like, bitchin' badass.

(LAUGHS) (SPEAKING VALYRIAN) (DRAGON SQUEALING) Dracarys.

-(GASPS, SCREAMING)-CLARKE: Uh, it was really cool.

(LAUGHS) Favorite day on setwas definitely a day in Osuna when we weredoing the gladiatorial sequence.

My little girl was there.

You know, she watched her papa work.

David, uh, said, you know, “Come and sit here.

You can call it.

” And she was like.

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(HIGH-PITCHED VOICE) “Action!” The fight betweenThe Hound and.

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Brienne of fucking Tarth.

We'd studiedand trained for that a long time, and it all came to fruition.

That was just fantastic.

HARRINGTON: Iceland, Season Two, the first day we were there.

That was my favorite dayon Thrones.

I'd never been to a more beautiful place in my life, and it was special for so many reasons.

(PANTING) It was the scene where I was not able to behead Ygritte.

Strike hard and true, Jon Snow.

(SWORD CLANKS) HARRINGTON: My favorite actor to work with was Rose Leslie.

There was somethingreally special aboutworking with Rose.

I really, really enjoyworking with John Bradley.

You saw this in– in a vision.

HEADEY: I really enjoyed the scene with Mark Addy way back in Season One, just becauseit was so intense and there– It was, like, pages and pages long and it was really unexpectedfrom those two characters.

Sometimes I don't know whatholds it together.

Our marriage.

(BOTH LAUGH) There's an ease that I get withacting with Iain Glen 'cause he's been my palthe whole time, has been my one– My buddy!(LAUGHS) IAIN GLEN: And the mostbeautiful thing about Emilia, she has no idea how good she is.

She genuinely has no idea.

And she still has no idea.

-(INDISTINCT CHANTING) -She's always, sort of, vulnerable, which gives–It's part of her–Part of a great gift.

JOHN BRADLEY: I think in terms of my favorite scene partner, it would have to be Kit.

Kit was the first person I ever had an acting relationship with because it was my first job.

I think that the friendships that you form when you are a bit scared and a bit uncertain, and treading unfamiliar ground, they're the onesthat tend to stick, because you cling on toeach other for support.

Sansa, come here, little dove.

I always loved workingwith Lena.

What are you doing? Praying.

You're perfect, aren't you? Praying.

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Just watching herand learning from her was the best drama lessonI could have ever hoped for.

I disobeyed my king, your father, and now I'mpaying the price.

I don't care, you're my friend.

LIAM CUNNINGHAM: Shireen Baratheon.

I had a couple of sceneswith Shireen that I loved doing.

To have her level of humanity.

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uh, and decency, and cleverness, and brightness.

He just treats her as an equal, and I really liked that aspect of the relationship that they had.

I really miss Charles Dance, who played my father, Tywin Lannister.

We had such a great chemistryand a great friendship.

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Tyrion.

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despite our on-screen relationship.

(ARROW LOOSES) I'm very fortunate to work with the greatest cast.

Everybody is so professional, and so incredibly kind and generousto their fellow actors.

Everyone involved is– is–like a family, and it's a family that, amazingly, still laughs and gets on with each other eight, nine years in.

There's been no assholes.

No people.

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divas.

There's been no.

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nothing.

Not even a suggestion.

WILLIAMS: When it's all said and done, I'll miss the dynamic of the show 'cause there's nothinglike this show.

I mean, Game of Thronesmeans my twenties.

I started this jobwhen I was 22.

And I am not 22 anymore.

Game of Thronesis my entire career.

I think I am gonna have a hard time saying goodbye to Sam.

It's gonna be very hardto say goodbye to playing Tyrion.

I will miss simple things.

Like walking onto set for the first time each yearin your new bits of costume and just knowing you're part of something which is.

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sort ofat the centre of attention.

Yeah, it's gonna be very strangewithout it, it's been eight years.

I'll tell you what I won't miss: walking aroundwith half a fucking beard three quarters of the year.

ARYA STARK:That's Jaime Lannister, the queen's twin brother.

COSTER-WALDAU: I was like a little puppy when I arrived.

I was like Bambi on the ice.

And coming to Belfast just.

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I learned just how to walkwith pride and joy.

TURNER:I've grown up with these people, I've changed so much as a personbecause of these people.

I'm so confident.

I've just got this confidence from the show and from playing Arya.

I really feel like I just wannainject that into each and every personthat I know and love, but then also any girlthat admires the work that I do.

CLARKE: The journey that I've been on with Danaerys, it's sharpened me as an actor, it's shown me the rangethat I can– That I can do, and.

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because of the heights that she goes to, it's forced me to find themwithin myself.

HEMPSTEAD-WRIGHT:Game of Thrones has been such an education for me in everything.

Having to be around adultsfrom the age of ten and work on a professional set, get up and learn your lines, and really thinkabout a character has also taught me a lot about myself.

HEADEY: As an actor, you work, and work, and work and you audition and you don't get parts, and you do get parts and sometimesthey're great experiences, and sometimesthey're really shitty, um, and this has been incredible.

Thrones is the holy grail, where it's something that is enormously, globally, massively popular and people think it's cool.

HARRINGTON: People are always trying to copy things, or do variations of things.

It's rare get something which is a completelyoriginal fantasy.

It's the most realistic showthat I've ever done, that also happens to havedragons and dead people walking around in it.

I think a lot of fantasyis heavy on the dragon and light on the character.

We're the opposite.

This show will be discoveredby generations to come.

It's timeless.

Every season, there's something else bigger than the last seasonand better than the last season.

And here we are, season eight.

It's cinematic.

We're makingten-hour movies every year.

That fact that this is reallya full stop, um, on this story is sad because.

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I think everyone's been so invested in this story that we never want to see this come to a close.

But it must.

And it will be good.

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