Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon Read online

  DAN WEISS: You listen to how sharply the pitch of somebody’s voice turns up when they tell you it’s good—“It’s good!” How much higher than their average register is the word good? That’s a gauge of how fucked you are. Our good was in dog-whistle territory. There were others who weren’t trying to be nice but were actually trying to be helpful. [Veteran television producer] Craig Mazin told us: “You guys have a massive problem.”

  GINA BALIAN (former vice president of drama at HBO): Their screening was the final confirmation for them that we had problems.

  One frequently cited issue at HBO was that the pilot lacked “scope.” Thrones was supposed to be an epic fantasy, but the production felt “small,” particularly for its steep budget and exotic locations.

  MICHAEL LOMBARDO (former HBO programming president): There were some concerns about whether we were getting enough wide shots. Are we getting the coverage we need? We hired the best costume designer and the best art director and shot this in Northern Ireland and Morocco, yet there was very little scope. I remember the quote was, “We could have shot this in Burbank.”

  IAIN GLEN: Some bigwig at HBO said, “Why the fuck did we go to Morocco? You can’t see fucking diddly squat, we could have shot it in a car park!”

  GINA BALIAN: Somebody said, “It looked like it was shot in my backyard.”

  The tone also felt off, like a series set in the world of Downton Abbey or a Merchant Ivory film, instead of Westeros and Essos.

  MICHAEL LOMBARDO: Some scenes were fantastic, like at Winterfell with the family. Arya, Sansa, Tyrion. But there was something about it that felt vaguely similar to British period dramas.

  Another concern was caused by hand-wringing over the project’s fantasy elements. A Song of Ice and Fire is an intensely realistic drama with moments of supernatural magic. But nobody was exactly sure how much Thrones should have of each genre, and it showed.

  BRYAN COGMAN: Is it fantasy with dramatic trappings? Is it a drama with fantasy trappings? There was a nervousness about the pilot leaning into the fantasy too much—ultimately to a fault. Key exposition was cut to make the dialogue sound more “real,” and as a result, the pilot didn’t make much sense. The impulse to not be over-the-top Shakespearian and Tolkien-esque was right—you’re trying to make it as grounded as possible—but this is still an epic fantasy, and if you ignore that, it’s to the detriment of your story.

  One confusing aspect wasn’t entirely the filmmakers’ fault—they couldn’t afford to stage any King’s Landing scenes, which more firmly established the Lannister family in the reshoot. But the dialogue didn’t help either. The shocking punch of Jaime pushing Bran out the window seemed nonsensical, as viewers didn’t realize that Jaime and Cersei were sibling lovers trying to protect their treasonous secret. The producers also tried to help explain the show’s backstory by adding at least one flashback (of Ned Stark’s father and brother being killed by the Mad King), but that idea was later scrapped as it just seemed to add to the narrative muddiness.

  GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: I liked the pilot. I realized later that I was a poor person to judge because I was too close to it. Some didn’t know Jaime and Cersei were brother and sister. Well that wasn’t a problem for me! My great familiarity with the material made it hard for me to objectively judge. I liked that they kept a considerable level of complexity. I’m told I’m under penalty of death if I ever show it to anyone.

  DAVID BENIOFF: HBO was very much on the fence. It’s a traditional thing at any studio that the last regime’s projects are going to be less appealing to the new regime. And this was a very expensive project.

  DAN WEISS: It seemed like Mike was leaning toward no. He was not at all pleased, and for good reason. He decided maybe it would be better to just take the loss on this one.

  MICHAEL LOMBARDO: We were in the conference room and had the producers in for a “come to Jesus” meeting. The question was whether the showrunners thought they nailed it. Because if you’re on a different page, that’s really a concern. How do we show this pilot to our CEO and convince him to pick this up to series? How do we convince him this is a gamble worth taking? We go into a mode of “how do we fix this.”

  The producers knew they were in deep trouble. “I was just staring at Mike’s face—it was like a horror movie,” Weiss recalled to Vanity Fair. “To his credit, he didn’t want me to feel terrible. He was trying to keep his face impassive.”

  Benioff and Weiss drew up a list of what they knew wasn’t working and how to fix each issue.

  DAN WEISS: We’d done a lot of soul searching. The one thing I think we did right is we owned all the mistakes. We didn’t point fingers. We said: “We know this isn’t good, and here is what went wrong and how we would do it differently the next time.” We just went down the line. I think they got the sense, which was honest, that we weren’t coming in trying to explain why the bugs were features. We were all on the same page that where we want to be is many levels up from this.

  CAROLYN STRAUSS (former programming president at HBO; executive producer): There was a lot of begging and pleading. I think what was clearly evident was that there was a show here. This is why you do a pilot, because you’re looking at what works and what doesn’t and whether this thing has legs. Once certain things were fixed, this would be a story you can tell over many episodes that keeps moving, with characters that keep evolving, but not so fast that you run out of story.

  The rough pilot and the revision plan were handed to HBO’s co-president Richard Plepler, who was the ultimate decision-maker. The company had already sunk $10 million into this dragon drama. Would they double down?

  DAVID BENIOFF: We knew going into that screening that his decision was going to make or break us. It was a very tense hour while waiting for a phone call from Gina.

  DAN WEISS: The line about pain being a great teacher is true. It was so deeply unpleasant to have been given the opportunity to make something like this, an opportunity we knew would most likely never come along again, and then to have the sense there was a 52/48 chance you fucked it up. It was one of the most horrible feelings I can remember.

  DAVID BENIOFF: Then Richard came out and said, “You know, let’s make this.”

  RICHARD PLEPLER (former co-president and CEO of HBO): You could see that some of the casting and the narrative was off. It needed to be fixed; it needed to be reshot. But the overall emotional response was that you could feel how engaging it could be. So just as you could feel there were a range of problems that needed to be addressed, you could equally feel that there was magic in there.

  DAN WEISS: To his credit, Richard saw through the mistakes to what this could be if the mistakes were fixed.

  HBO ordered ten episodes of Game of Thrones, including a reshot pilot. Changes weren’t only made to the script and the production plan but among the cast and crew as well. First-time TV director McCarthy was replaced on episode one by a top HBO veteran, Tim Van Patten, who had directed many acclaimed episodes of HBO dramas. Meanwhile, British-American actress Jennifer Ehle, who’d played Catelyn Stark in the original pilot, had changed her mind about the series, telling The Daily Beast she wanted to spend more time with her newborn daughter.

  MICHAEL LOMBARDO: The actress who played Catelyn decided she didn’t want to move to Northern Ireland. I’m like, “What?” Then you have a conversation with yourself about whether to force her to uphold her contract. In retrospect it was one of the best things that could have happened. Michelle Fairley took over the role and was fantastic.

  Benioff had spotted Fairley in a London production of Othello, where she played Emilia, whose tragic final scenes of breakdown and murder are not unlike the eventual fate of Catelyn Stark. “Emilia’s not a character I generally notice in Othello,” Benioff recounted in the book Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones: Seasons 1 & 2. “Iago’s wife? Who cares? But Michelle was so absurdly good that I left the theater thinking, ‘Who the hell was that? And is she available?’”

&
nbsp; But the team’s most difficult decision was to recast Daenerys Targaryen. One source said that breaking the news to Merchant was “the hardest phone call [the producers] ever had to make.”

  MICHAEL LOMBARDO: There was a piece of casting we had to rethink, [a role] that was compromised. We all knew Daenerys’s journey was critical. Her scenes with Jason just didn’t work.

  JASON MOMOA (Khal Drogo): [Merchant] was great. I’m not sure why everything was done. But when Emilia got there that’s when everything clicked for me. I wasn’t really “there” until she arrived.

  BRYAN COGMAN: Everybody involved in making the original pilot scored such a bull’s-eye with so many of our actors. I thought Tamzin did a really good job. It’s hard to say why things didn’t work out. Ultimately, it’s obvious Emilia Clarke was born to play that part.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “My Book Come to Life”

  Second chances in Hollywood are rare. You take a big swing, you miss, and you’re done—definitely with that project, and sometimes with your entire career. Game of Thrones was granted a very rare second chance. The producers, cast, and crew were determined not to blow it. Filming resumed in July 2010 with a newfound sense of meticulousness and urgency. “We were very lucky to be given a ten-million-dollar rehearsal,” said Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen). “Then the reshoot was bigger. There was an investment on a grander scale.”

  Massive new sets were created by British production designer Gemma Jackson at the Paint Hall (including the Red Keep in King’s Landing, with its iconic Iron Throne, and the Eyrie in the Vale of Arryn, with its perilous Moon Door). Jackson also constructed a new Winterfell at the historic Castle Ward, a step up from the ruins of Doune Castle, and an expansive courtyard for Castle Black at Magheramorne quarry, a set that included a fully operating winch elevator. And costume designer Michele Clapton took the cast’s already impressive outfits to another level with a feeling of lived-in authenticity. The crew’s preparations stunned the actors when they arrived on set as they bonded and settled into their roles.

  KRISTIAN NAIRN (Hodor): I remember the first day walking into the Paint Hall and seeing they had built a castle inside of this big shed. I’m a complete fantasy nerd, and I was blown away. Nothing looked fake; it all looked correct and real.

  KIT HARINGTON (Jon Snow): I was dazzled by all of it. I’ve since worked out that most film sets are not as magnificent as Thrones. So I just assumed this is what every film set was like. Looking back, I realize how special it was.

  MARK ADDY (Robert Baratheon): The sets were huge and surprised me. You feel like you’re in the world. There was so much with the costumes and the sets that made your job easier. Very little green screen.

  PETER DINKLAGE (Tyrion Lannister): It was so great not to be wearing a costume with Velcro on it.

  As Richard Madden once described his hefty, layered costume to Westeros.org: “It took some forty minutes to put it on. I needed help because there were all these straps and buckles. I loved it, because it really affected my performance and helped me as an actor. It changed the way I walk, the way I breathe, the way I stood and hold my posture. At 4 A.M., putting on the costume could be a killer, but it was really useful for me in helping to build the character of Robb.”

  JOHN BRADLEY (Samwell Tarly): Walking onto the Castle Black set the first time, it hit home that this is a real thing. That brought a considerable amount of pressure to it. Until then, I had the satisfaction of getting the job and my friends and family back in Manchester back-slapping. Then you get on that set and see how many people it took to make this thing, and you’re around actors at a level I’ve never been at before. Kit already had a great reputation in theater; he was revered by a lot of people I went to acting college with. And people like Owen Teale [Ser Alliser Thorne] and James Cosmo [Commander Jeor Mormont] and other actors had achieved so much.

  There was also a 360-degree element to the set. There was nothing to distract you. The smoke, the smell of burning flambeaux—it may not be pleasant, but it really did immerse you. You’re feeling like your character would feel and smelling what your character would smell. If you can sacrifice some comfort, it helps the process.

  So on my first day, I was just given my sword and told, “Be useless with that.” I’m useless with that in real life. So the fact I could barely pick it up and didn’t really know what I was doing was perfect.

  KIT HARINGTON: Alfie, Richard, and I clicked instantly as the young lads. We were guys straight out of drama school, so we might as well become best mates, and we became best mates. Then obviously Maisie and Sophie and Isaac fell into being little siblings. We felt protective over them. And they, I think, looked up to us as the older kids. We felt like a family quite quickly.

  Harington filmed one of his most important scenes in the series very early on, though the actor didn’t know how meaningful it was at the time—Jon Snow’s farewell to his father, who cryptically assured him, “You may not have my name, but you have my blood.”

  KIT HARINGTON: I remember that scene better than most. I remember it being my big scene, and my only scene with just Sean. I thought, “This does mark Jon out as having a secret.” I would have put a lot of work into that scene had I known what it meant.

  TIM VAN PATTEN (director): I didn’t want that scene to be overly sentimental. And we decided to do it at these crossroads in order to play the fact that they never see each other again.

  ISAAC HEMPSTEAD WRIGHT (Bran Stark): Kit, Richard, and Alfie became like big brothers to me. I was thinking, “They’re so cool!” I went out and bought a jacket that looked like Kit Harington’s. We would all hang out in the greenroom teaching each other card games.

  MARK ADDY: The boys, Kit, Richard, and Alfie, were just young lads who were very excited about getting to carry a sword and wear armor.

  Williams decided during the first season to learn to how use a sword with her left hand, just like Arya in the books, despite being right-handed herself. Keeping up the continuity of Arya’s being left-handed would end up being a bit of a nightmare. “Eight years later, and I’m still paying for that mistake,” she told Vogue UK in 2019. “In the beginning, I just had to do a little sparring. Now, I’m doing entire fight sequences with the wrong hand, and I’m like, ‘Why did I ever think this was a good idea?’”

  MAISIE WILLIAMS (Arya Stark): I look back at when I was twelve and I can tell [watching scenes] when I was really tired that day on the set. I was thinking, “I’m hungry, I’m tired,” all those silly twelve-year-old things.

  DAVID BENIOFF (showrunner): I remember we had dinner with Sophie and her mom and it was the first time she had ever eaten shrimp.

  SOPHIE TURNER (Sansa Stark): My mom read the books. I wasn’t allowed to read much of it because of the explicit stuff. But I read [the Sansa-point-of-view] chapters to know what was going through my character’s mind.

  Wright had to learn about “the explicit stuff” in order to understand his scene in the pilot when Bran discovers Jaime and Cersei. “I was told what was going on, but it meant that my mum had to give me the sex talk a little earlier—with some topics that probably aren’t covered by general sex talks,” Wright told Jimmy Kimmel Live!

  But Bran was mostly paired for scenes with Kristian Nairn’s Hodor.

  ISAAC HEMPSTEAD WRIGHT: As an icebreaker when we first met, Kristian handed me his iPhone. I was playing the Harry Potter Spells app. He said, “Whatever you do, don’t drop my phone.” Then I threw it and smashed his phone into a thousand pieces. From then on we had a very fun relationship.

  KRISTIAN NAIRN: When Joffrey and the Lannisters arrive in Winterfell, that’s one of my best memories. It was probably one of the biggest gatherings of the cast. Everyone was still alive among the Starks, Robert Baratheon, the Lannisters. Apart from Daenerys, the whole cast was there. That was the day I realized what a big production it was going to be and what I was a part of. That was a fantastic day—everyone together for one of the first and la
st times.

  MARK ADDY: One day, Lena Headey was in hysterics due to the discovery that Sean Bean had a nail brush in his bathroom. It was such a serious scene and between takes we were enjoying the fact that Sean might have a soap on a rope at home.

  GETHIN ANTHONY (Renly Baratheon): My first day was a small council scene and it was terrifying. I was fairly green, and these were guys I’d looked up to when growing up. You’re worried somebody is going to fire you at any moment. I only had one line—“If you can’t keep the king’s peace, perhaps the City Watch should be commanded by somebody who can”—and I still managed to mess it up. Director Brian Kirk came over to me: “Hey, how you doing, buddy?” I was like, “I’m good! I’m good. . . .” He was like, “Don’t worry. I’m pretty nervous too.” That settled me down. He could read the room.

  Later, I had my first time filming one-on-one with Sean. In my mind, this is the point where you prove you know your lines. The rehearsal of the scene started, and there was this big hanging pause. I looked at Sean. Sean looked at me. And nothing happened. I’m thinking, Is he going to talk or what? It’s a bit awkward. Then the first AD goes—looking at me—“Not to worry, chaps, let’s go again!” Then again, we just stood there staring at each other for what seemed like an unendurable age. Then they stop again, going, “Okay, guys, this doesn’t seem to be, um . . .” And Sean’s looking at me. He asks: “You all right?” And I’m going, “Yeah! I’m fine.” And I’m thinking, “Oh God, oh God, what am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to signal him or something? What’s happening?!” I felt pure terror. Eventually, one of the writing assistants comes over to Sean and says, “Is everything okay? This is your first line.” Sean goes, “Oh, we’re doing that scene!” He thought it was our next scene where it did start with me. He had been working so incredibly hard and had like fifty scenes in his head.