During a 2019 interview with The Guardian, actress Gwendoline Christie (who played the warrior Ser Brienne of Tarth) said filming on the final “Game of Thrones” season was “a lot, a lot, a lot.” In season 8, Christie’s character swiftly moves into the center of the action, fighting on the frontlines to save Winterfell from the Army of the Dead (if you haven’t watched the show, think of them as ice monster zombies who won’t die.)
The actress agreed with the words of her co-star Kit Harington (who played Jon Snow), who previously noted that the workload on the season had explicitly been “designed” to break the actors (via GQ Magazine). It’s a long journey to stay with the same character for years, and it appears that season 8 was particularly challenging, not only because of its expansive scope but also because it weighed emotionally on the actors.
“The last season of Thrones seemed to be designed to break us,” Harington said in his interview with GQ.
“Everyone was broken at the end. I don’t know if we were crying because we were sad it was ending or if we were crying because it was so f***ing tiring. We were sleep-deprived. It was like it was designed to make you think, Right, I’m f***ing sick of this. I remember everyone walking around towards the end going, ‘I’ve had enough now. I love this, it’s been the best thing in my life, I’ll miss it one day – but I’m done.'”
