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Need a Chuckle? Read About Roger Ashton-Griffiths’ First Day Filming Game of Thrones

You know nothing Jon Snow

Also: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau fangirling over Brienne of Tarth, like you do.

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Of all the new characters coming to Game of Thrones in season four, we’re most excited about Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand, because… because they’re Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand. Book readers, you know. A bit less with the dashing and the sexy is Margaery’s father Mace Tyrell, perhaps Tywin Lannister’s biggest political rival. He’s being played, as we previously heard, by Roger Ashton-Griffiths.

And Roger Ashton-Griffiths, to borrow a phrase, knows nothing.

Via an interview with Dawn.com (not related to the dish soap):

You didn’t read a single book from the series before the shoot?

“No.”
Had you seen the show?
“No.”
Then how did you prepare for your character?

“On the first day in Belfast, I was expecting some kind of an introductory pack telling me who was who, how they were related and what had happened until now. I got nothing. I woke up in the morning, wore my costume, went on to the set and was told ‘Oh, good morning! Here is your place. ACTION!”

Awkward. That scene was with Tyrion, Tywin, and Cersei, whom he didn’t know were related. During the first week of filming he went out and got the season two (not one) box set and finally got clued in to those little details like what the Iron Throne is (“There was this monstrous big chair made of swords — which I thought was quite nice”). “I watched [season two] and thought ‘Oooh!,’” he continued. “I’d quite like to have gone back and shot that week again because I would’ve done it differently, for sure.”

Does anyone else want to hug him? I kind of want to hug him. I also want to try and explain to him what R+L=J means and see what happens.

In the realm of people who are a bit more familiar with the world of Westeros we have Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, aka Jaime Lannister, who at the beginning of season four will finally be back among the rest of his family. If only his family weren’t so filled with power-hungry psychopaths. And if only he didn’t have to lose a hand in the process. “I think the biggest change” for Jaime, says Coster-Waldau:

“is the fact he loses his identity in many ways and has to reevaluate and rediscover himself. That goes back to the scene with Brienne in the bath where he reveals this huge secret that he’s carried since he was sixteen. He tells, of all people, this woman because I think they have connected and he sees himself in her. The big question, of course, is what happens when he gets back to King’s Landing? That’s where we’ll find out what has changed. At the end of season three something has changed but he doesn’t know what it is. I think he surprised himself and doesn’t really know why he went back and rescued Brienne from the bear pit.”

“Hey, did I mention how great Brienne is?,” he continued, but only in my head and not in real life. “Because she’s seriously wonderful. Cersei? Cersei who?”

(via: WinterIsComing.net, io9)

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