Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has revealed he came pretty close to a lawsuit with HBO after pretending to cut his hair.
The Danish-born actor – who has starred as Jaime Lannister since episode one of the fantasy epic – is fairly notorious for his enviable barnet, so when he joked that he’d got a buzz cut the broadcaster began speaking to lawyers.
‘There’d been a lot of talk about Jaime’s hair in the early seasons – his long golden locks,’ he recalled. ‘Once he lost his hand, I thought he should maybe have a haircut. And then I thought, “Why don’t I just pretend?”
‘This is five, six seasons ago – I sent them an old picture where I had a buzz cut. I sent a long letter where I explained I’d taken control of my character and I want to be respected. I said that my integrity as an artist was at stake!’
When HBO went stone cold silent, Nikolaj brushed over the whole thing until he got a call explaining that the head of hair was now frantically building a wig.
‘I said, “It’s just a joke! Did you really believe?” They all believed it. They’d also called my manager. HBO had started to talk about suing me and it had gotten out of control.’
Thankfully, the dust settled Nikolaj kept his job and Jaime is still standing going into season eight when thousands have fallen before him.
Obviously he’s keeping his lips sealed when it comes to the events set to unfold over the next six weeks, but when awkwardly put on the spot there was one Jaime and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) question which clearly struck a nerve.
However, one thing we do know for sure is there will be a moment more shocking than the Red Wedding, as director David Nutter spoke exclusively to Metro.co.uk yesterday.
Game of Thrones season 8 returns to HBO and Sky Atlantic on April 14 but you can catch up on seasons 1 to 7 on NOW TV.
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