A County Down man has has swapped one of television’s biggest-ever shows to helping Team NI in their quest to claim a gold medal at this summer’s Commonwealth Games.
Matt Rollston accidentally found himself performing in some of the biggest and most memorable scenes in Game of Thrones.
The 42-year-old from Rathfriland made a number of “split second” cameos in the hit HBO series.
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Now he is preparing to represent Team NI in the 3×3 Wheelchair Basketball at this summer’s Games in Birmingham.
“Game of Thrones was a flash in the pan,” he said.
“I was in a few episodes here and there. You might recognise bits of me from a split second in odd show and now I’m hoping to fight for a medal at the Commonwealth Games this summer.
“I was playing wheelchair tennis in the Ozone Centre many years ago and a group came in that were looking to run a Census advert in 2000 so they picked a few of us then I got a phone call about nine years later saying they needed a double amputee and if I fancied coming in.
“Game of Thrones had done nothing at that point, and I was actually in for the very first scene. Sean Bean was in it at the start, and I was thinking this might be a flop, but I’ll go along and see what is happening.
“I went along and even at that stage I didn’t know, I got a couple of days on set and you do very little. You are actually very apprehensive to what way is it going to come out, or you going to get used or you going to get scene or will you scream terrible.
“You start off as a dead man and then you progress, getting to scream and die, the sky is limit.
“I was in seasons three, five and eight. I was in the ‘Battle of the Bastards’. There is a big battle scene at the end of the series, and they are climbing up a pile of dead bodies and you’ll notice a guy with no legs climbing up them, that’s me. But you might never know it.
“It was some experience seeing what happens behind the scenes, the amount of work that goes into setting up those battle scenes and the cool thing about being an amputee and getting called in to be an extra on this shows is they look after you really well. But you are always called in when the massacres are happening, so it is like the big show finale.
“You’re not getting called in when two people are sitting in a room when two people are talking, it’s all blood and guts and special effects and smoke. Just witnessing the other side of that camera your hair is standing on end when you are going home afterwards it’s hard to switch it off.”
It wasn’t all Hollywood glitz and glamour, however, as Rolston had to shoot a scene at 2am on a November morning in Toomebridge.
“You are in the green room many a night and you don’t get called out but that night I was straight in and straight on my ass in a couple of inches of mud ready to get pulled through and fake stabbed with an axe,” he laughed.
“That was close to Halloween, and I was looking to hold onto my costume and win a few costume parties that year.
“At the start I didn’t know if I’d do it or not, but you go along for a day’s pay and all of a sudden it blows up and a lot of people have heard a lot about it in the last lot of years in Northern Ireland.”
Team NI qualified for Birmingham after beating Scotland after extra-time in the European qualifier and Rollston believes the men in green have every chance of bringing home a medal.
“We had a lot of weight on our shoulders with can we qualify and can we pull it out on that one evening of three matches back-to-back,” he added.
“We got ourselves together and we got our mind frame right and we made it happen so just to get there after the three years of prep it was incredible.
“I got a wee flash in my mind in that final, of if we don’t make it we’re back to the drawing board for four years and that would be a hard thing to stomach.
“I’m fantastically happy the boys have an opportunity to go and play there. We have a great bunch of players and it is only right that we are there scrapping it out with some big countries to see where Team NI can factor on the map.
“Sport is cruel for every gold, silver or bronze medal there are a lot of athletes that have put a hack of a lot into it and didn’t get there or maybe got to the event and didn’t get a medal or ones back home fighting to get on a team.
“For every victory in sport there are a lot of people sad they didn’t get there, we’re going to go in and have a good dig at the finals.
“The fact that it is narrowed down to six teams it is there and we have a chance. We have to win one of our group matches and we are in a semi-final and when you are in a semi it can go anyway.
“We have the talent, and we have magic in our group, we have speed, we have boys that are creative and this is the sport to show it.
“My team talk to the boys will be let the magic flow, back each other up and be creative and enjoy it. Every game is a final and let’s see which final we are in.”
“We’ll be fighting for either fifth, the bronze medal or first, we’re going to be in one of those battles and the higher up the better.”
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