You’d think the final scene with Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke on Game Of Thrones would be bish bash bosh done, right?
Well, no, actually – that final harrowing moment in which Jon Snow kills Daenerys Targaryen took a mammoth three weeks to film.
And it’s only a page and a half of copy, we should add.
Kit, who plays Jon in the HBO epic, opened up on the final shoot alongside Emilia, who plays the Khaleesi, admitting the whole thing was terribly exhausting.
The ending to the fantasy drama after eight seasons concluded with Jon killing his lover/aunt Dany after she sort of went mad with power and destroyed King’s Landing with her dragon.
He is adamant the ending was exactly what the show was about, but boy was it draining.
‘We felt a sense of responsibility over it. We shot the hell out of it. It was essentially a page and a half of dialogue, and we spent three weeks filming it. They wanted to shoot every conceivable angle, every way, to make sure they got it the way they wanted it,’ he told the Hollywood Reporter this week.
‘When you’re shooting the same scene for two weeks and it’s a page and a half, it becomes a long exercise in concentration. You have to remember the energy you’re bringing in, every day, and making sure it’s consistent.
‘With a highly emotionally charged scene like that, it’s quite a lot, for everyone – the crew, me, and Emilia. It was tiring. It’s one of the hardest things we filmed.’
While the script might have been building up to that moment, as Jon and Dany became increasingly separated in their views of how to deal with Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and the people of King’s Landing, the moment he realised he’d stab her still came as a shock to Kit.
‘I was completely surprised by it even though you can kind of see the path through the season of how it was getting there – and even the previous couple of seasons before that, once you can look back,’ he continued. ‘But it was still a big shock to me.’
Speaking about the crux of the show, be believed it all came down to being a tale about a bunch of dysfunctional families.
You know, throw in some magical beasts, dragons and Direwolves and what not, and a whole heap of bloodshed.
He said: ‘It was said a long time ago, and I agree with it, that Thrones really is about dysfunctional families. It’s about mothers, brothers and sisters, but it’s also about how far your blood will stretch in your decision-making.
‘That’s the ultimate choice Jon is left with. He’s faced with someone he loves as his lover – who he is related to – but his loyalty is with the people and the part of the world where his roots are, the people who raised him.
‘It’s that horrible conflict in a relationship: “Do I stay or do I go?” We’ve all been through it at some point … except this one involves a knife.’
Yep.
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