Peter Claffey, who plays Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, recently opened up about the intense nerves he felt while filming one of the show’s most memorable early moments: Dunk’s rousing horseback speech in episode 1.
Quick read:
- Peter Claffey felt really nervous while shooting his infamous horseback speech
- He wanted to do complete justice to that speech
- According to him, dramatic scenes are harder to shoot than others
“Are there no true knights among you?!”
Ser Duncan pic.twitter.com/OKSqctjFbC— GameofThrones Quotes (@ASOIAFQuotesGOT) February 16, 2026
Star-struck and under pressure
When asked about the scenes during an interview with The Playlist, that worried him most from an acting perspective, Claffey admitted that discovering the impressive cast list made him anxious. He was especially star-struck meeting several actors he had long admired. One of the earliest major scenes he filmed involved Dunk joining the lists alongside Plummer, played by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor; an actor Claffey described as “a hero of mine.” The pressure was real:
“You get really nervous before those things because you obviously want to do a good job, but you also want these people to think that you’re genuinely able to act.”
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The looming “braveheart” speech
The biggest source of anxiety for Claffey was Dunk’s powerful speech on horseback during the Trial of Seven sequence. This monologue was a key part of his audition process, so it carried extra weight.
“The speech on the horse is like a massive thing… That was quite looming over for like a couple of weeks in advance. I was like, ‘It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming.’ I want to really do that justice.”
The team even nicknamed it the “braveheart” speech because of the dramatic horseback delivery. Delivering an emotional, high-stakes monologue while managing a horse made the scene technically and emotionally demanding.
He also clarified that the big dramatic sequences, not the comedic or physical ones, were the truly nerve-wracking parts for him. The horseback speech remains one of the standout moments of the series.
