Game of Thrones will be coming to an end this month with the culmination of the series that began eight seasons ago. Obviously fans are waiting in anticipation, wondering what Game of Thrones Season 8 will bring. But for the stars of the show, Game of Thrones also marks the end of a journey that began many years ago.
For Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, the mainstay stars of the show, the final run of Game of Thrones has had a profound effect on both their professional careers as well as their personal lives as this interview reveals.
What has it been like
saying goodbye to the show that has made your careers?
ST: There were multiple dinners with the friends we have made over the last
season.MW: The dinners are still happening.
ST: It’s still happening and when we’re at the premiere again, there’ll be plenty more. You can’t just do one dinner and one party to end it. It’s a long process for us to wean ourselves off Game of Thrones!
When you got the
scripts for this final season, did they come in some sort of self-destructing
box?
ST: It was a self-destructing app. It all goes away after 24 hours or
something like that.
MW: I’d only got to episode three and then I couldn’t see them anymore! I’m emailing Sophie going, “Help me!” Do you remember after Christmas when we were on the Christmas break, they all deleted then I was trying to do work over Christmas and…
ST: …you couldn’t! All the secrecy is something you have to come to terms with.
What was the group
read through of the whole final series like?
ST: Everyone was there. It was very emotional. We’ve had read-throughs
before but not everyone showed up. This time…
MW: …everyone was there. Producers, heads of department. They were all there and it was very emotional.
ST: Yes. Kit (Harrington) was reading it for the first time at the read-through. That was funny. You could just hear him in every scene him let out a gasp.
When you look back on
the series how has it changed?
ST: The scene that changed how I saw the show was first season episode
nine, Ned’s death and it was just like, “It’s not going to be that kind of
show. It’s going to be this kind of show.” For my character, the scene
where she kills Ramsay was like, “That’s Sansa.” What about you?
MW: I just think in these final seasons all of the women have started to really come into their own. One, that’s been not very predictable. Two, it just makes a lot of sense. When you read into the show and you read into their storylines and how people have been playing the game, the five women on top have really deserved to be there. That was something that we’d hoped for but the fact that the show’s really going that way is just so powerful, unlike lots of other shows.
What was your wrap
day like, when you finished altogether?
MW: I just said a few things about how the industry has been really
difficult but coming back to the show has always been worth it and that
everyone was like a family to us. Everyone was pretty emotional by that point,
having watched everyone wrap. That was like, “I’m going to keep it brief.
You’ve heard a lot.”
ST: My final scene was after a long stretch – we were shooting this scene in Spain. Everyone else could have an ice vest except for me because my costume is so tight. I was just begging for them to call wrap. Then they called it and they made this speech and I just burst into tears and I was like inconsolable for hours and hours and hours after. I was just a wreck.
Game of Thrones
Season 8 premieres same time as the U.S. this April 15, Monday at 9am, with a
same day encore at 10pm, exclusively on HBO (Astro Ch 411 / 431 HD).
The series will also be available on HBO On Demand (via Astro Go). New episodes
will premiere every Monday at the same time.
