1) The Amazing Charles Dance
One of the most interesting actors on the set was Charles Dance, with whom there are two interesting cases. First, there was a casting call for almost all of the actors, the showrunners along with George R. R. Martin to choose performers for major and minor roles, but Charles Dance did not audition. The showrunners realized that they were too young and it wasn’t Charles they should be interested in, but they were interested in him. In the end, the role of Tywin went to him, because the creators of the series in this role saw this actor. Secondly, despite the fact that from the looks of the actor is very tough and it seems that in real life his character is similar to the character of Tywin, in fact, everything is not so. Charles Dance did not share the views of his character at all and after every humiliating scene of Peter Dinklage, in which he was insulted in every possible way, Charles approached his colleague and apologized.
2) The writer’s vision
Another actor who did not audition was Peter Dinklage. But here already intervened George Martin, who only in him saw Tyrion Lannister. And the writer was not mistaken. His view helped him to reveal an excellent actor who performed one of the main roles in the series.
3) The George R. R. Martin mystery
George R. R. Martin did not want the screen rights to fall into the wrong hands, so when he met with David Benioff and Daniel Weiss, the writer had a serious conversation with them and decided to check with one question whether they were worthy to screen his books. He asked them if they knew who Jon Snow’s mother really was. The would-be showrunners replied that it was Leanna Stark and they were right. George R.R. Martin realized he was putting the rights in good hands, but what happened in the final seasons is another conversation.
4) A good recommendation
We can say that absolutely all the actors perfectly got into the characters of their characters. Lena Headey, who played the role of Cersei, is no exception. There is an opinion that it was Peter Dinklage advised showrunners this actress for the role of Cersei. At that time, she had already managed to play in 300 Spartans and The Brothers Grimm . It turned out that Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey — good friends. When they were lucky enough to get on the set on the same days, they often spent time together off the set.
5) Inspiration
Jack Gleeson managed to perfectly fulfill the role of Joffrey Baratheon. He got so into this role that fans began to hate not only the screen character, but also the actor himself. This partly led to the fact that Jack Gleeson abandoned his career as an actor and for a long time disappeared from the radar, until in 2020 he took part in the series from the BBC. To play Joffrey, Jack Gleeson decided to find a similar character hated by all, and his choice fell on Commodus from Gladiator . The actor studied his facial expressions and partly repeated it in the series.
6) Tense relationships
The British film industry is not that big, so many actors often cross paths in various movies and TV series and know each other through at least one other person. So it’s no surprise that the British cast of Game of Thrones has had roles played by former lovers. Even before the series, Lena Headey, who played Cersei, dated Jerome Flynn, who played Bronn. But their relationship ended so unpleasantly for each other that they demanded the showrunners not to cross their filming days.
7) Barack Obama is a fan
Imagine you are a former president of the United States. What would you do if you had residual influence and a good reputation with your people? Barack Obama used his position for the most innocuous of purposes — when he met with the showrunners of Game of Thrones, he asked them if Jon Snow would be alive in the next season. Then the showrunners decided to show the former president the sixth season ahead of time so that he could watch it for himself.
8) A small request
One of the most memorable moments in Arya Stark’s story was her list of names that she repeated before going to bed. The actress who played Arya admitted that sometimes fans who came up to her would ask her to add their names to the list and read it out with those names.
9) Screenplays
Before allowing the showrunners to make the series, George R. R. Martin received many different offers to show the plots of his books on the big screen. The only hitch was that the books couldn’t be transferred to the big screen in a way that didn’t require cutting out a lot of different material. The writer said that he kept turning down the offers and believed that his books could only be shown on the screen through a TV series.
10) Reines of Castamere
Reina’s song from Castamere is the one that viewers associate with the Red Wedding, but originally David Benioff wanted this song to be the title song in the series. In the end, it was decided to make this song the symbol of the Red Wedding, and for the title theme they came up with an equally interesting soundtrack.