As fans eagerly await the new season of the award-winning fantasy action series, Game of Thrones, which goes to air April 13, the cast weighs in on what we can expect from Season 5:
KIT HARINGTON (Jon Snow)
“I’m incredibly excited about this season because there’s a huge shift in Jon. The arc is coming full circle. He’s had all this learning experience in seasons One to Four. He’s lost love, he’s lost family members, he’s seen death and he’s seen supernatural forces. Basically, he’s bombarded by everything. This season is probably the hardest heartbreak for him because at the end of last season he lost the one woman he’s ever loved.
Jon Snow has issues
“Yes, he obviously has some massive mother issues and he’s not very good with women and then to finally find a woman who he loves and then she dies by someone’s arrow. So now, in this upcoming season, he says, ‘Enough. I know what I have to do and I know what task is at hand. There’s nothing that’s going to stop me!’”
LENA HEADEY (Cersei Lannister, pictured below)
“Well, with Cersei, certain people think she’s just a crazy bitch but she doesn’t make apologies for being female and she plays it the way she can to keep her safety and position in the next season.”
Brotherly love
“Well, she and Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Walderu have had such a journey over the last two seasons. I think him meeting Brienne (Gwendoline of Tarth) and having that experience and then him returning to Cersei was a big moment for them. He’s seen a new side of Cersei and everything’s come undone for them and I love all that.”
A little understanding
“I think you’ll understand a little more of Cersei’s paranoia in this season. At an early age she was told she’d suffer great loss. One has already happened and this has haunted her since she was a child and the immense guilt she feels about her children being Jaime’s and the punishment that’s going to come from that I think the audience understands her a little bit more because of that.”
ALFIE ALLEN (Theon Greyjoy)
“Well, he’s been through many changes and it’s been mentally exhausting as well as physically demanding, but it’s been great. As an actor I’d like to see it go darker with him but as a person I would obviously like to see some redemption. In terms of drastic changes he’s definitely had one in particular but I think it was more than appropriate for the character because his own real point of authority was in the bedroom. And then to have his only weapon taken away from him was really reducing him to nothing, and it was humbling him almost to the degree that a lot of people have said that Theon didn’t really have many redeeming features. I’m sure there is definitely a section of people that are baying for blood. What I like about Season Five is that many characters whose paths have never crossed or spent much time together changes now and it’ll be great for fans to watch.”
The dark side
“I have got to grips with the character now but there was a song called Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver by a band called Elbow. I thought with the isolation my character was going through it painted the picture well for me in my head. Theon didn’t have a choice over his own fate and in his life.”
SOPHIE TURNER (Sansa Stark)
“In the past four seasons she’s endured so much and she’s grown up a lot over this period of time, and also, I’ve been turning into a woman over the last four seasons. But now she’s shed this skin of her former self. In this next season she has a lot of downfalls and she has a hard time but she approaches it differently because of the new mindset she has. It wasn’t a gradual evolution into a woman for her, it was very sudden. It was like a cocoon and she was a butterfly suddenly, a dark butterfly, but it’s very exciting. She’s become very strong and she’s not relying on anyone else to come and save her. She’s doing everything for her now.”
The most difficult thing I’ve done on the show
“I had to sing in Season Two, and I can’t sing! I’d been reminded of it in my everyday life so that was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. I was hyperventilating. I think it comes from the fact that I always thought I could sing until my parents said I couldn’t and that I should stop wailing around the house.”
GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE (Brienne of Tarth, pictured below)
“Brienne is a woman of her word and she honours the oath she’s made to Catelyn Stark. I loved when Brienne sees Arya and it was a particularly beautiful moment because she is following a similar path to her own. Brienne falls in love with her a little bit or certainly feels inspired and a bond is created between them, a female solidarity.”
Why we love Brienne
“The reason we fall in love with her is due to the choices she makes rather than the way she looks. She’s not conventionally attractive and that adds to it. It’s good that younger people who are watching TV see a character that becomes a new archetype. Perhaps we’ll have a more encompassing representation of women in modern culture because of it.”
MAISIE WILLIAMS (Arya Stark)
“I think where we left off with Arya last year was closing a chapter of her life and now in the new season she’s less set about controlling her future and a lot more eager to learn. She’s let go of the angry person she was before and she’s happy to explore different things and trusts a lot more. It’ll be interesting to see how people react to her.”
Dealing with Fans
“They’re so complimentary and it gives you a little buzz in the day. They want a photo and they’re so pleased to get it that it gives you peace of mind that you’re doing all right. And at the end of the day the fans are what we’re doing this for, particularly the fans of the book and we’re bringing it to life for them. It really lifts your spirits to know you’ve lifted theirs.”
