Spoiler warning for Episode 8.03 of Game of Thrones!
Though he’s silent on the show, the Night King is finally speaking, or at least the actor behind the character, Vladimir Furdik, is. In Game of Thrones‘ last episode, Westeros’ Dark Lord eventually met his destiny after Arya Stark killed him in quite a spectacular fashion. In a recent interview with THR, Furdik has revealed that shooting that scene required 15 takes.
“It was a very emotional day and night,” actor said. “It was so strong. I spent all my energy playing it, and she as well. It was not an easy day. It was cold. There was rain. She was on a wire, in a harness, jumping many times. It wasn’t just the one time; it was maybe 15 times. When I have to hold her under the jaw and it looks like she dies, we had to spend a lot of energy on that particular scene. It was very, very difficult. We are very good friends. We know each other. It wasn’t easy for me to [pretend to] hurt her. When I grabbed her under the jaw, it wasn’t easy [on a practical level]. If you make a bad move — if you don’t grab her well — she could have an injury. So I was under pressure and she was under pressure. It was not an easy day.”
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Then the actor explained that shooting “The Long Night” was by far “one of the hardest jobs” he has ever done.
“When I heard that it was going to be a three-month shoot, I said, ‘Oh my god. This will be crazy,'” Furdik added. “Then I went to the set, where we did one month’s preparation before shooting. It was a three-month shoot, and one month before. Then we did another month on a stage inside, reshooting some small pieces. This was one of the hardest jobs of my life. We had meetings with [the individual actors for their own battles], depending on who’s fighting with who: Jorah (Iain Glen), Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), and what they are doing. For every battle with these actors, we prepared exactly the movements for them. Every kill, and every move they made, was prepared over weeks and weeks, and hours and hours. We were so busy. Every move that happens doesn’t happen just because; it happens because we prepared it. Every jump — everything.”
Game of Thrones‘ next episode will premiere May 5. Did you like the way the Night King has left Westeros scene? Let us know in the comments section below.
