Game of Thrones said goodbye to a lot of characters in Season 8 episode 5, “The Bells“. One of these was a relatively newer, yet very much noticeable character — Euron Greyjoy. In a recent interview with Vulture, actor Pilou Asbæk discussed how it was to play this character, and more. Read on!
Speaking of “The Bells”, Pilou revealed that he hadn’t watched any episode since season 6, but recalled that the table read was very emotional because of the number of characters that die. He was then asked about how it is that Euron went from Dragon-slaying aim to not being able to get a good shot at Daenerys:
“Because they needed it for the story line? I don’t know. I think we had to take out one dragon so we level the fight just a little bit, and they caught her off guard. It was a sneak attack. That’s the reason why they could kill one of the dragons. But now she’s prepared and now she’s pissed, and if there’s one thing you don’t want, it’s the dragon mom pissed. She’s going to go fucking rogue man.”
He then discussed his last scene, which was Euron dying at the hands of Jaime Lannister, after a rough brawl:
“That was wonderful because Nikolaj and I are old friends, and he’s such a nice [guy] and I’ve known him for so many years. We’ve worked together in Denmark as well, so that was very emotional. The reason it was also very emotional was because it was Nikolaj’s last day of shooting Game of Thrones. He was wrapped after that fight, so when I said, “I’m the man who got Jaime Lannister,” it was also me saying, on a private level, I’m the man who did the final scene with Nikolaj.”
He was asked if he celebrated with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime), to which he replied:
“Yeah, man, you hug and you do a high five, and I actually think we drove home together and we talked about everything. He was just being realistic about, because it’s been ten years of his life, and now he needs to redefine [himself] and his career and do something radically different than Game of Thrones. That’s a big challenge. That’s a big challenge for everyone. But would you swap anything and not be a part of Game of Thrones? I don’t think so. This is a phenomenon. Even though some people have been very critical with some of the things this season, it’s also because people are emotional about it. It brings a lot of things up in people.”
Pilou then discussed playing Euron, and how he was received by the fans of the show:
“I’ve enjoyed it. The reaction has been so positive, and people have been so sweet and wonderful about it, as long as everybody’s writing the same thing: “I hate your character, but I love you.” Some people forget the last part of that sentence and just write, “I hate your character,” “I hate your acting,” “I kind of just hate you, man.” Those are fun as well because you’ve just got to embrace it. For me, this is my job, and next week it’s over and people will calm the fuck down, and they will start appreciating what Dan and David have created. But right now, people are so emotional; it’s quite intense. I’ll tell you that.”
He also talked about how HBO had a strict policy that wouldn’t let them post pictures of filming until the related episode had aired, which explained a lot about some of his Instagram posts.
What do you guys think? Did you like Pilou’s portrayal of Euron? Talk to us in the comments, down below!
