Game of thrones. War, weddings, and the Wall
The long winter of waiting is over — Game of Thrones® is finally returning to HBO®. Westeros remains riddled with war and a threat from the North looms larger than ever. Need a refresher before the season premiere? Explore our exclusive Game of Thrones® bonus content. And keep reading to learn how Brienne of Tarth changed Jaime Lannister forever.
Game of Thrones® Season 4 premieres
Sunday, April 6 at 9pm ET/PT on HBO®.
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HBO®, Cinemax®, and related channels and service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.Brienne, the Beauty and the beast
We had the pleasure of chatting with statuesque and totally down-to-earth British beauty Gwendoline Christie. Besides sharing with genuine enthusiasm why she loves playing Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones®, she charmed us with her infectious laugh and hilarious stories about diva bears, naked knights, and red-carpet fashion. Read on!
Brienne is a very unconventional female character. She is one of the best swordswomen in the land. She comes from an island called Tarth [Thrones Fact: Tarth is also known as the Sapphire Isle, for the blue waters that surround it — not because sapphires were mined there].
Her father is Lord Selwyn Tarth, and Brienne describes herself as "the only child the gods let [my father] keep. The freakish one, one not fit to be son or daughter." She believes her father should have a son to make him proud. She doesn't want to have children, because in that time in Westeros women often died in childbirth. In Brienne's opinion, she would rather die in a more honorable way.
So she trains for years and pledges her life to protect Renly [Baratheon] as one of his Kingsguard, because he is the only man who has ever treated her like a woman, but more like a human being — with gentleness, kindness, and true regard.
"The only child the gods let [my father] keep. the freakish one, one not fit to be son or daughter."
"Being beautiful can be about the choices that you make rather than the way in which you're physically configured."
So, what's it like to sword fight wearing a suit of armor while filming on location, anyway?
HBO® and Michele Clapton have done a wonderful job making me as comfortable as possible in that armor. It's not comfortable for anyone, but they really do their best to make sure that I am in conditions where I can work. What I appreciate is the attention to detail and reality of the costumes. They are so beautifully conceived and executed and the details are exquisite. I like to feel that what Brienne is wearing is as close as possible to what she might actually wear, and if that makes me, as the actor, a little bit physically uncomfortable, then that is how she would be feeling.
It's one of the most wonderful stories of my life. I had always wanted to work for HBO®. I read the books and I fell completely, completely in love with the character and the whole world. It was so sensational and unusual, and moreover, really exciting and entertaining. I felt that maybe once or twice you are lucky enough to find a part that you feel you know, that will expand you as a person and as an actor, that you just love and think is brilliant. So I decided that I really wanted to do this.
I didn't have very much screen experience at all, so I started kickboxing and lost about 25 pounds. I knew that I would have to have my hair cut short — I was a very traditionally feminized woman previously. The idea that this part might resonate with people who felt marginalized was really exciting. I saw it as an opportunity for personal development, to embrace and come to terms with my own androgyny and to use that to become a more interesting actor and artist. And then I got the part, and it's been amazing.
It's wonderful to have this job — it's so exciting, so fun. I get to learn sword fighting and horse riding and to become immersed in my strength and these parts of myself that I've never seen before, like discovering that being beautiful can be about the choices that you make rather than the way in which you're physically configured.
I'm really incredibly lucky — the phenomenally beautifully written scripts that we get to study with these directors who have such vision and passion — I'm just really excited to be part of a show that is mainstream and breaking so many barriers. But it’s also just a real romp. I just think it's great fun.
What was it like working with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and how was Brienne able to make us stop hating Jaime Lannister so much?
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is a sensational actor and a really fun person. He's very committed to his work and super playful with it, too. I was a little nervous working with him initially because he has so much experience and he is so brilliant — I had watched the show and was so blown away by his performance and his skill as an actor. But he just met me on the same level. He acts like such an idiot and he likes to carry on off-screen. It's just so much fun.
It's a glorious relationship that Brienne and Jaime have, which you've seen move from complexity, irritation, stubbornness, and hatefulness into something a bit more, at times more playful, a little bit more honest and tender. It's just such a journey to be essentially chained up to a total jerk and then to suddenly see the jerk transform in front of your eyes into someone who has sacrificed part of their life, their reputation, for the well-being of others.
Nikolaj was really hopeful that the show would get to Season 3, because for the character of Jaime Lannister, that's where the audience's perception of him changes vastly. Brienne also undergoes a big change where she starts to become a bit more vulnerable, or a bit more comfortable in her vulnerability — the two characters are not so different after all.
The more I studied the arc of their journey, I realized it was a moment of personal change and evolution for Brienne. She is entirely vulnerable and physically naked, and it is the most intimate situation that she's ever been in with a man. He starts to open up and communicate these extraordinary experiences and recount with real honesty this act of purity and personal sacrifice. [Thrones Fact: The story Jaime tells Brienne in this scene gives his perspective on the act that earned him the nickname "Kingslayer."]
When he starts insulting her and she stands up to him, in that moment she is [literally] naked before him. It could be a moment of embarrassment and humiliation, but I felt that in that moment Brienne starts to embody and encompass her femininity. She is emboldened by that moment of nakedness, and she starts to discover there is strength in one's womanhood — that it doesn't just mean wearing a dress and being subservient. She develops an inner strength more akin to her outer strength.
"Please, will i get to fight the bear? let me fight the bear, let me fight the bear, let me fight the bear"It was so exciting! I keep saying that, but it's true! When I read in the book that Brienne fights a bear, I was really so hoping they would let me do it. In Season 2 when we started filming after I got to know David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] a bit more, I said to David Benioff, "Please, will I get to fight the bear?" He just laughed. And then when Season 3 started, I said to the delightful fight department, "Please, will I get to fight the bear?" And they sort of said nothing.
I kept on: "Let me fight the bear, let me fight the bear, let me fight the bear" They said, "Look, we can't shoot that. In the UK you can't get close enough to a bear to shoot it." So I said, "Where can you get close enough?" And they said, "Los Angeles." And I said, "Well, let's shoot it there!" And they said nothing. And then it got quite close to shooting the scene and finally they said, "You know what? You're going to L.A. to fight the bear!"
[Bart the Bear 2] was sensational. Wonderful trainers who have a beautiful sensitivity and connection to animals worked with this bear. He was such a diva — he had to have country music on at all times on set. The second he stepped out of his bear trailer he needed a round of applause. When he performed a trick he had to be given cream in a frying pan! Why when I step out of my trailer, why don't I get a round of applause? Why don't I get cream in a frying pan? Why don't I have pumping house music playing on set all the time?
When we were filming the scene, it was pouring rain and freezing cold and really muddy and it was hard. And it was one of the best days of work I've ever had, because everyone really pulled together. Often the more difficult the circumstances, the better time you have.
I can't share anything! But I will tell you that by the end of Season 3, Brienne has started to explore her femininity in a variety of ways she would never have considered: naked in the tub with Jaime Lannister, fighting a bear, nearly being raped, being forced into a dress that exposes a lot of her chest — there was stuff going on that made her very uncomfortable. In Season 4 Brienne continues to be tested in environments that are completely unfamiliar to her. She meets people you might never imagine. One of my favorite things about Game of Thrones® is that the one thing you can expect is the totally unexpected.
fan reaction been like overall? Different than you expected?
I'm just so thrilled that people are celebrating
something that is outside of conventional perceptions
of women and female characters. It's a huge, huge
surprise! It's one I'm delighted about and one that I really champion. Brienne is a strong female character not only in traditionally male terms in the world of Westeros — in sword fighting, strength, bravery, and honor — she is also a vulnerable and complex woman.
In the genuinely wonderful world of Game of Thrones®, in the multidimensional characters that George R. R. Martin creates, we see a 360-degree view of a woman, with all of her facets, from phenomenal super strength to incredible fragility. That's why I love playing this character so much. I love that she's not conventionally attractive. I love that people seem to identify with her vulnerabilities and her feelings of being an outsider.
I would like to say: Thank you very much for that! I love awards season — who doesn't like to put on a nice frock, and get going with jolly smashing accessories, and get some makeup on, and get your hair done, and feel like a bit of a princess?
I've been incredibly fortunate that brilliant British designer Giles Deacon is making some clothes for me to wear, and it feels pretty good to have something that fits! [The] gold leather laser-cut dress [which she wore to the HBO® Game of Thrones® Season 3 premiere party] is by Giles as well. I love the attention to craftsmanship and the esoteric, out-there nature of the design. I really love design and it's exciting to me to be able to wear it.
Red carpets are fun and totally terrifying. But on the whole I am very lucky — because I'm not a conventional woman physically — that I've been treated very kindly. I've had so much fun this year — I was lucky enough to go to the Golden Globes, so I can die happy after that.
And of course, after fighting that bear!
I love awards season — who doesn't like to put on a nice frock, and get going with jolly smashing accessories ... and feel like a bit of a princess? red carpets are fun ..."