Promotion for Game of Thrones is in full swing now that we are a mere 11 days away from the season premiere. Cast members have been making the rounds at various media outlets, doing their best to hype the final season without spoiling anything. Today brings even more interviews our way from the Stark siblings Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and Isaac Hempstead Wright; a Lannister and his sidekick, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Jerome Flynn; Red Priestess Carice van Houten; and Mother of Dragons Emilia Clarke.
Best friends Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams stopped by Good Morning America to share their thoughts on how it all wraps up. “I don’t know if it’s what people are expecting,” Williams says before Turner chimes in with “I think some people will be satisfied, and others…not so much.” Well that certainly narrows it down!
Take a look at the clip below for what they stole from the set and what it was like growing up on Thrones.
At ExtraTV, Maisie Williams reacts to basketball player Kobe Bryant wanting to be on Arya’s kill list, and Sophie Turner talks about how it was to work with her friend Maisie:
Isaac Hempstead Wright gives a little more information about season eight in his interview with Esquire. “It’s bigger! It’s better! It’s even more epic!” He then gets serious and says, “Obviously there are some big battles. Episode three is going to be something else. There are definitely things wrapping up from many, many seasons ago where you’re like: oh, I never thought that would come back.”
Wright then reveals an interesting tidbit from his final day of filming. “The very last scene I shot – and it was a lot of other people’s last scene – it was actually quite pathetic, everyone was in floods of tears. It was so actorly. They read out ‘that’s a wrap’, then David and Dan gave a speech. And I remember thinking: I’m not going to cry. I’m feeling fine. Then they brought out our wrap gifts, which were these framed storyboards from a key scene, and the waterworks turned on.”
Could this be a hint that Bran survives? If not, then perhaps many other characters go out with him…
Speaking with Indulge Xpress, onscreen pals Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Jerome Flynn discuss where their characters left off, as Flynn jokes that Jaime “goes off, and he doesn’t say a word. No mention to his old friend, not even a message…” Coster-Waldau quips back that “The Mountain was about to chop off my head. I didn’t really have much time to make calls!” He declines to say whether the two reunite, but states “it is the final season, so you would imagine that we would move towards some resolution when it comes to the major questions.” Flynn adds, “With a fight or two in between…”
As for their last days, both actors express the sadness and finality of it. Coster-Waldau’s story wrapped up in “a perfect way. I can’t talk about the scenes, but it was the perfect ending to my whole experience of being on this show. It was a beautiful day, Northern Ireland, it was a great crew, great scenes. I’d seen quite a few of these farewell speeches by this point. I remember I was like, ‘Why are people getting so emotional? It’s ridiculous. I’m way too hard for that.’”
“Then, they give you this beautiful bit of a little framed bit of storyboard — mine was when my hand is chopped off. On the back, they write some nice words to you, and then suddenly, I felt some wet stuff on my face. I was like, ‘God! Errrr! I must be coming down with a cold.’” I think we will all have wet faces by the end!
Build Series NYC conducted a live interview with Carice Van Houten, in which she also expresses how difficult it is to say goodbye to the show. “It’s funny because everything I do now is the last time…When I did my last scene I actually was very, very emotional, and I didn’t see it coming.” She admits she “wept when it was over,” and that it was a “release” since most of the cast suppressed their emotions over the finality of it until the very end.
Speaking of the end, Van Houten confesses she doesn’t know all the details. “I’d rather not know much…I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, and I like it that way.” Does that mean Melisandre won’t make it to the finale? Given she predicted her death to Varys last season, it wouldn’t be too surprising.
Check out the entire interview for the gift she received after burning Shireen, dealing with grueling shoots, and more!
Finally, Emilia Clarke made an appearance last night at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, going through not only ten years of playing Daenerys in Game of Thrones but also through the two brain hemorrhages she suffered while filming:
Check out the video for the whole thing! Emilia is, as ever, a joy to watch. More than that, it’s really inspiring to see her talk so honestly about her health issues.
