Whether he’s being himself or playing Samwell Tarly on Game of Thrones, John Bradley makes our hearts melt. If you need proof, just take a look at this recent interview with Conan O’Brien. Bradley talks about an emotional speech he gave at (one of) the Game of Thrones wrap parties in Belfast. Grab a box of tissues before you watch it:
While Bradley doesn’t recall the entire speech verbatim, the gist of it was something like this:
As someone who grew up overweight and kind of unhappy because of it and thinking that life was going to pass you by because of it. And all the times where you just kind of go to bed and think, “I would give anything to not have this weight”…And while I was feeling that about myself, [Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] were looking for me. They were looking for exactly me. An it’s not just a case of accept what I consider to be faults about myself, but they’re gonna see them as virtues, and they’re gonna be my key into this amazing experience and meeting all these amazing people. And if I’d have known they were looking for me, and what kind of effect that was gonna have on the rest of my life, then I wouldn’t have been able to believe it.
Honestly, I was teary-eyed watching Bradley be so emotional and vulnerable.
John Bradley also spoke to Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd, who realized partway through that these Game of Thrones interviews are about to come to an end:
I think that’s how everybody feels. If you have to inhabit a different skin for six months of every year and then you’re told you’re never going to play that part again, it’s weird. When I got to the end of his story, I got the sense I was abandoning Sam. Because every year, you grow with your character. I wish I could stay with him a bit longer. Because the last couple of books are coming out, we will get more of these characters. They will exist in another form in a few more years. And for book fans especially, that first book came out in 1996. At some point, the characters are not going to be in their lives anymore.
Bradley recalls getting the scripts for the final season and realizing how monumental it all was. The entire world was anxiously awaiting the end of this story, and he had it in his hands. But with great responsibility comes great…paranoia:
You guard it with your life. We feel a responsibility to keep all those secrets. But I think the audience is going to be delighted. It’s never been a show that gives people exactly what they think they want. If you asked any fan of the show going into season 3, “Do you want Robb Stark and Catelyn Stark to be killed at a wedding?” They’d say, “No! We don’t want that, we’re behind them, we want them to succeed.” Then it happens and we feel all those emotions and they realized that’s what we needed.
Speaking of secrets, Sam himself is sitting on a big one about Jon Snow’s true parentage. As we head into the first episode of the final season, we’re all reminded of the HUGE secret Sam has regarding Jon Snow’s parentage. Bradley didn’t give away any specifics, of course, but did intimate that the news will be broken right. “Sam knows if Jon has to hear this that he would rather hear it from Sam than anybody else because he trusts Sam to deliver it in a compassionate way.”
And then there’s the huge battle between the living and the dead. What was filming that like for Bradley?
[Director Miguel Sapochnik] has such a forensic sense of detail the way he can see the point of view of all these different characters in his head and know what each individual beat means to them. It’s so inspiring. He will rein you in at times. When doing these huge fight sequences, you get carried away sometimes. You want to make yourself look as good as possible. Miguel said to me, “I know that you want to show you’re quite good at this. But remember your character. Sam’s not that good at this. You have to play him because that’s what’s going to be truthful. So stop being so good!”
We’re just days away from getting to see all of this come to life! Are you ready for it?
To stay up to date on everything Game of Thrones, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels
