Gwendoline Christie on nominating her ‘Game of Thrones’ role for Emmy: ‘Had to do it as a testament to the character’

‘Game of Thrones’ star Gwendoline Christie says she decided to submit herself as a contender for the 2019 Emmys for playing Ser Brienne of Tarth because of her confidence in what the fan-favorite character represented.

The actor’s conviction proved right when she landed a nomination in the best-supporting actress category alongside her co-stars Lena Headey, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams, whose names were sent to the Emmys by HBO.

“I checked that it wasn’t an inappropriate thing to do, and I was told it wasn’t. People submit themselves all the time. I truly never expected it to manifest in a nomination and I don’t think anybody else did either. But I just had to do it for me. And I had to do it as a testament to the character and what I feel she represents,” Christie told the Los Angeles Times from London.

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The 40-year-old actor, who is starring in a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at London’s Bridge Theatre, is happy that her part survives till the end on the show, which was notorious for frequently killing off popular characters.

“I could not believe that I made it all the way through. And I was at the end of the final episode. Brienne makes it through and has a life beyond. I found that incredibly positive and unexpected,” she said.

The show was criticized when Brienne’s character sleeps with Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) only to be abandoned by him in the next scene but Christie says she liked the fact that her character did not veer off her chosen path in the end.

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“What I liked was that happens, but then she goes back to work. She doesn’t follow him, does she? She stays with Sansa and she does her duty. And she did get her happy ending, and her happy ending wasn’t defined by a man. What completes her as a character and what makes her three dimensional as a character is a fact that she becomes open about her feelings.”

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