Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon Read online

  In season two, Benioff and Weiss sent another fake script, this time to Alfie Allen. The season-finale script concluded with Bran Stark getting revenge on Theon Greyjoy for capturing his family’s castle. “This is my Winterfell, not yours,” Bran declared, and stabbed the traitorous Theon in the heart.

  Except the prank didn’t go quite as planned.

  DAN WEISS: That one backfired because Alfie was in Ibiza and deep enough into whatever chill mode he was in.

  ALFIE ALLEN (Theon Greyjoy): I thought it was cool. I went on a holiday, and David and Dan were all thinking I was going to call up going, “Hold on a minute, whoa-whoa-whoa!” But I just got on with it. Then they had to make it clear to me later on it was all a joke.

  DAN WEISS: We had to go so far to try to get a rise out of him. “You’re a dead . . . naked . . . zombie.” We just had to keep adding unpleasant adjectives to the word zombie.

  Rose Leslie was pranked after the showrunners heard the actress was terrified of singing in public. The duo gave Leslie a script where Ygritte performed a lengthy song, “The Last of the Giants,” from Martin’s novels. The song includes lyrics such as, “Oooooooh, I am the last of the giants, so learn well the words of my song, for when I am gone the singing will fade, and the silence shall last long and long.”

  The showrunners even once pranked an actor who wasn’t on Game of Thrones. Benioff and Weiss are friends with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator and star Rob McElhenney, who recommended Thrones hire frequent Sunny director Matt Shakman. Despite Shakman lacking action experience, Benioff and Weiss took a chance on the director and gave him two ambitious season-seven episodes, including the battle-intensive “The Spoils of War.”

  DAN WEISS: We thought it would be funny if we told Rob that it was not working out with Matt and that he was a total disaster. He would feel so guilty because he recommended him. We went back and forth [on email] slowly, not throwing it out there all at once, asking questions like, “So when Matt’s on set, how does he usually behave?” Rob was all, “What-what-what’s wrong?!” We told him we’re going to have to step in and take over the episode because it’s turned into such a mess.

  MATT SHAKMAN (director): I forgot about that! That was the darkest practical joke. Rob was legitimately tortured about it. He was so concerned for me and was like, “What can I do? Who can I talk to?” It went on for way too long.

  DAN WEISS: When it got to the point where Rob was thinking of calling his agent, we took a picture of us, Kit, Emilia, and ten Dothraki all giving Matt the finger. We sent the photo to Rob, and it was beautiful.

  Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) decided that somebody should play a prank on the showrunners for a change. So after finishing primary filming on one of the midrun seasons—but before he was needed back on set for some critical reshoots—Coster-Waldau sent producers what Weiss dubbed an “Angry Actor Email.”

  DAN WEISS: He wrote how he was very upset that we were changing his hairstyle. He said he felt the need to own his hair because his hair was part of his character, and he was going to take it upon himself to get his own haircut that he felt best reflected Jaime Lannister as he saw him. He said he hoped we’d understand and that he’d send us a picture shortly.

  Day went by, no picture. Another day, no picture. Finally, seventy hours later, he sent us a picture of him with this military buzz cut. He shaved all his hair off, and we had reshooting to do with him. We’d have to get a Jaime Lannister wig made at the last minute at tremendous expense. HBO’s lawyers were calling his lawyers. Then he emailed back and told us the picture was from five years ago and he hadn’t cut his hair at all.

  Benioff and Weiss also played a modest prank on me during their interview for the book you’re now holding. I tried to get the showrunners to reveal whether Jon Snow was, in fact, “the prince that was promised” (a.k.a. Azor Ahai, the reincarnated prophesied savior Melisandre was searching for throughout the series).

  JAMES HIBBERD (author): So was Jon Snow—in the show at least—the prince that was promised?

  DAN WEISS: Ask Kit.

  DAVID BENIOFF: You should ask Kit.

  DAN WEISS: Yeah. Kit knows.

  Months later, during Kit Harington’s interview . . .

  JAMES HIBBERD: Finally, there’s one question the D’s said I should ask you: Was Jon Snow . . . the prince that was promised? . . . They said they told you.

  KIT HARINGTON (Jon Snow): Did they? Fuck, I don’t remember. No, wait. They didn’t tell me shit! They’re just taking the piss out of you and off-loading that question onto me.

  (Harington, by the way, figured the prince that was promised was most likely Bran.)

  The most elaborate prank was played on John Bradley during season six, when Samwell Tarly returned home with Gilly to meet his estranged family. Except it wasn’t the showrunners who came up with this one.

  DAN WEISS: Hannah Murray had long had the shittiest costumes on Game of Thrones; she’d been in a burlap sack for five years. She was so happy to finally get into a real piece of clothing. So Kit and Hannah thought it would be funny to play a joke on John and let him think he was going to get a new costume too.

  HANNAH MURRAY (Gilly): Kit and I came up with the idea that John should have a new costume and it should be really stupid. We thought we’d tell him he had a new stupid costume and he’d be like, “Oh, no!” and that would be it. Then it became this bigger, more elaborate thing than we ever imagined.

  Benioff and Weiss had the Thrones costume department create a gaudy outfit that made Bradley look like a Renaissance-fair fool and even staged a fitting session to help convince the actor that it was legit.

  DAN WEISS: We thought it would be great to make the costume ludicrous but just believable enough to not know it was a gag, so he’d think he would be wearing this on-screen. It was all rental stuff, very Henry the Eighth, with Tudor bloomers and a massive codpiece.

  JOHN BRADLEY (Samwell Tarly): I looked so bad and ridiculous, it was unbelievable. There was a huge vulgar codpiece—though flattering, to be sure. The reason I bought it is because we’d never seen Sam at home before, and [his parents think] he’s an idiot. Maybe Sam dressed like an idiot before he came to Castle Black.

  HANNAH MURRAY: He was talking about it all the time. “Have you seen my new costume? My hat has been made comically small.” He was really annoyed. I had to keep going, “Oh, I’m sure it’s fine.” Eventually I went to David and was like, “Are we going to tell him this is a joke?” And David was all, “Oh, yeah, we probably should.”

  JOHN BRADLEY: You always think you’re not going to fall for pranks. You always think, “I’ll see through that,” and I cannot believe I didn’t see through it.

  DAN WEISS: Near the end, pranks got difficult. Nobody trusts what you say anymore.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “Go in Screaming”

  Game of Thrones broke many records during its eight seasons, but here’s another: longest consecutive torture of a character in filmed entertainment. Theon Greyjoy was captured by Roose Bolton’s bastard son, Ramsay, at the end of season two and didn’t escape his clutches until the season-five finale. In between, nearly every time Thrones shifted to Theon’s storyline, the traitorous former Stark family ward was enduring yet another novel form of physical torment or mental anguish at the hands of his sadistic keeper. Behind the scenes, Theon’s pitch-black, years-long arc took its toll on actor Alfie Allen, who couldn’t help but absorb at least some degree of his character’s misery.

  The storyline launched when Theon betrayed Robb Stark in season two. Theon seized Winterfell in a futile attempt to win the approval of his estranged father, Balon (Patrick Malahide). Young Bran and Rickon escaped, and Theon murdered two orphan boys for their corpses, preferring to trick his newly conquered subjects at Winterfell into believing he’d killed the Stark children rather than admit he lost such valuable hostages. Like Walder Frey, Theon feared that any perception of weakness would
prove his downfall.

  One constant thread in Martin’s books is that achieving power is difficult, but maintaining power is much harder, perhaps even impossible, particularly without the ruler being corrupted. As King Robert said in Martin’s A Game of Thrones, “Sitting on a throne is a thousand times harder than winning one.” It’s a lesson that Theon learned rather painfully.

  DAN WEISS (showrunner): Theon is like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. He’s the most shadowy character. He’s not good, but he’s not really evil either. He’s made lots of really bad, but also understandable, choices. He wanted the things we all want: He wanted to be taken seriously, he wanted to achieve things, he wanted his father to be proud of him. Yet those desires led him to do terrible things, and then he reaped Westeros karma. There’s something very universal about Theon.

  BRYAN COGMAN (co–executive producer): One of my favorite scenes I wrote was in season two, when Theon wrote a letter to Robb betraying his own father, then changed his mind and burned the letter. We weren’t really sure if we could pull it off because it’s a short scene with no dialogue. But then you get that camera on Alfie and everything you needed to know was behind those eyes.

  DAVID BENIOFF (showrunner): Theon was caught in the ultimate no-win situation. He was going to betray his best friend or his family. People see him as a traitor, but if he had written that letter to Robb, his homeland would have thought of him as a traitor—not to excuse him for his wrongdoings.

  ALFIE ALLEN (Theon Greyjoy): I think my character was severely misguided. He was just a boy, really. I think there was a nice guy down there. He just had no one teach him the ways of the world and tell him right from wrong. He’d observed it but not been told it. He was just trying to prove himself. I think that’s a universal theme with anyone, whether people try to deny it or not. You’re always looking for your parents’ approval. Even if you’re not looking for it, you kinda are.

  As part of Ramsay’s torture regimen, the Bastard of Bolton castrated Theon. It was a scene that even Thrones flinched from showing on-screen.

  ALFIE ALLEN: I felt [the castration] was very appropriate because that’s a huge change for any man to go through, but for Theon it was kind of his only weapon in the world of Thrones. He only had authority and power in the bedroom because he’d never had any decisions to make over his own life. To have that stripped away from him left him with nothing. But only [male fans] seem to mention it. No women ever mentioned it, which made me laugh.

  The mutilation was like Jaime losing his sword hand—a sinful man being deprived of the part of him from which he wielded power over others, forcing him to reexamine his life and find new reservoirs of strength.

  Theon’s sister, Yara, received a box containing her brother’s severed genitals that Ramsay sent to their father, Balon. The audience didn’t see what was inside, just Yara’s gravely disturbed expression. The box wasn’t empty, though.

  GEMMA WHELAN (Yara Greyjoy): The only thing I can say is that the props department did him proud. They definitely, um, filled the box.

  Filming so many torture scenes had an effect on Allen, who tried to express the cumulative impact of Ramsay’s abuse on his body when he was on-screen.

  ALFIE ALLEN: I had to do more telling a story with my eyes than words. Since he had a nail driven through his foot, I added a bit of a limp. My posture in my back I tried to arch out and bring my shoulder blades back together. I wanted to replicate that feeling of being on the cross in a way. There’s many times when it was tough, and if you were to ask me, “God, how much more can a character take?” I’d say, “I don’t know.”

  DANIEL MINAHAN (director): Alfie would be screaming and then laughing. He’d have to scream and scream and scream. And then if he didn’t laugh, then we would laugh because, you know, he’s Alfie.

  ALFIE ALLEN: [Ramsay Bolton actor Iwan Rheon and I] are really good friends and spent a helluva lot of time together. He beat me at pool many nights. When we’re out people literally could not get their heads around the fact we’re hanging out. We get these Belfast locals losing their minds over it.

  DAVE HILL (co-producer): After Theon escaped, I asked Alfie how it felt to finally be free of Ramsay. He said: “You don’t even understand. Those three seasons, after I was castrated and I had to play Reek, were really hard on me emotionally.” He’s friends with Iwan, and he said it would strain their relationship. After he had a day of playing Reek, they would go shoot pool and he couldn’t beat him. They would weirdly slip back into their [on-camera] interaction, where Iwan would be a little bossy and Alfie would shrink back. His character started to bleed into his personal life.

  ALFIE ALLEN: It definitely seeped into real life. It got you down. You had to use it. I’m not gonna lie, it was really hard. The character went through so many crazy changes. I always say Theon was one of the most human characters on the show. The Reek aspect amped up his pain and suffering, but for me as an actor it was great to tackle—excuse the pun.

  As Theon suffered under Ramsay’s control at the Dreadfort, Arya and the Hound were on a road trip that would conclude with some screaming as well. The duo was one of the show’s most captivating odd-couple character pairings—the Hound helped teach Arya the savage ways of the world, while Arya inspired the Hound to rediscover some of his lost humanity.

  DAN WEISS: Arya is a character who had the core of her life ripped out of her, and she existed in a very dark place for a young girl. She was driven largely by revenge and hate, and she had a great mentor in revenge and heartlessness in the Hound. They rubbed off on each other in ways that were unexpected.

  MAISIE WILLIAMS (Arya Stark): She learned a lot from the Hound. She’s like a sponge and heavily influenced by people around her. Being next to the Hound, she learned his brutal ways.

  GEORGE R. R. MARTIN (author, co–executive producer): The chemistry between Maisie and Rory was brilliant. Arya and the Hound at the inn—“I’m going to have to eat every fucking chicken in this place!” I had a version of that scene in my books, but I didn’t have those great lines.

  Rory McCann said he struggled with playing the Hound during the show’s early seasons, trying to find the right balance of fearsomeness and soul in a scarred warrior. One day, director David Nutter gave him a simple piece of advice that changed everything.

  BRYAN COGMAN: David really unlocked something with Rory. He told him to channel Clint Eastwood. That he doesn’t have to act scary—just give the flattest, simplest line read and it will speak volumes. There was a marked difference from then on in terms of how Rory approached the Hound.

  RORY MCCANN (Sandor “the Hound” Clegane): The first couple years I was very nervous all the time, and then I found the character. I just look in the mirror and go, “Fuck, there’s no reason to play scary, no wonder that little girl is frightened of me.” Less is more.

  McCann was also challenged by the Hound’s heavy facial prosthetics, which were a never-ending struggle on the set. The actor spent hours in the makeup chair each morning before filming and had to wear the thick mask all day. The latex caused problems whether Thrones was shooting in a sweltering desert . . .

  RORY MCCANN: You just got this pool of sweat underneath. And the buildup of sweat could split the prosthetic. And if it split there was a reservoir of sweat that came pouring out. A lot of shots have to be stopped just to squeeze all the sweat out and restart.

  . . . or on a frozen tundra . . .

  LIAM CUNNINGHAM (Davos Seaworth): Rory had terrible trouble in Iceland because the sweat underneath his prosthetic would turn to ice. His face got encased in latex. Which is not good. You could get gangrene from shit like that.

  Playing the Hound’s aloofness, however, came naturally for McCann. Thrones actors often hung out together after work, but McCann said that for many years he declined to socialize with the rest of the cast.

  RORY MCCANN: I’m very close to being the Hound. I was doing a scene with Kristofer Hivju and he went to hug me
as his character and I just said, “Don’t touch me.” I’m so like that at home. I’m not used to human touch. I’m a bit of a recluse. Before each season, I’d phone all my friends and tell them I don’t want to speak or have any contact with anyone at all before starting the job. It was only in the final couple years I started to talk to people and go out to pubs and be with the actors. Before that I was the weirdo who’s just in my room or in the gym or just back home saying, “Don’t phone me until it’s snowing.”

  McCann’s lone-wolf tendencies had an unexpected impact on Williams, not entirely unlike how the Hound rubbed off on Arya.

  MAISIE WILLIAMS: He would always chat with me about adventures he’d have in his life—buying a piece of land and living in a bunker—all these crazy things he’d do with his life. [During the early seasons] I was like, “Wow, that’s crazy.” Later I was like, “Oh, I bought a piece of land next to the sea,” and I realized, “Wow, you’ve really shaped me quite a lot as a person.” I’ve realized his way of life does seem really appealing, and I’ve learned a lot from him. I respect his friendship and loved working with him.

  One of Williams’s favorite moments in the show was after the Red Wedding, when the Hound tried to sell Arya to her aunt Lysa Arryn, only to discover Arryn had died too. Arya burst out laughing at the Hound’s predicament and the absurdity of her own misfortunes.

  MAISIE WILLIAMS: This whole time he’d been giving Arya such a hard time and he’s so in control and being this tough guy and saying he’s going to take me to my aunt in the Vale and going to get his money and “I don’t care about you, I just want my money.” And all of a sudden that happened and Arya completely loved it. Through laughter, she was saying, “Now what are you going to do?”