by C. A. Taylor
David worked so well with the actors, who all brought everything they had to this one. Everyone: Oona, Michael, David, Maisie, Rory . . . and Richard and Michelle. It almost seems redundant to talk about the strength and perfection of their performances in this scene. There was something very emotionally honest in their sadness, and in everyone’s sadness at seeing them go. [They were surrounded by a tough, Northern Irish crew who were tearing up at the monitors. The makeup department needed their own makeup department.] From the pilot, Richard and Michelle have been lodged at the beating heart of the show, so beautifully and powerfully embodying the complex and ultimately loving relationship between mother and son. The idea that they’re not still on the show hasn’t sunk in yet, and probably never will.
The Great Hall at the Twins with a dolly track to catch the murder of the bannermen.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN (CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND AUTHOR): I didn’t see the rough edit. I had hoped to come to set for the Red Wedding and be a Stark casualty, having my throat cut in the background, but sadly the press of work did not allow it. When I did see the final cut it was so vividly and viscerally done, I really felt that David and Dan had turned it up to an 11 in some senses. I knew we would get a huge reaction, because I had gotten a huge reaction 13 years ago—I got the emails and letters from people, some saying I was brilliant, some saying they would never read another book, some hoping I would die in a fire. With TV being much bigger and the Internet being prevalent, I knew it would be big, but I didn’t realize just how big. It’s pretty visceral in the books and to be honest I didn’t think that anyone would be able to make it bloodier, but David and Dan brought in Talisa and then made her pregnant. That had an impact even on me, because I wasn’t sure if she would end up at the wedding.
MICHELLE FAIRLEY (CATELYN STARK): I’ve watched it only once. I find it very hard. The speed of it, the way it was cut and edited, you felt you were there. Where would you run if you were in there? Even before Catelyn realizes what’s happening, there is this relentless inevitability to it. I think, in many ways, she was hoping, going against her gut that everything was going to be okay, but the minute the music starts it confirms her fears.
DAVID NUTTER (DIRECTOR): Michelle Fairley is basically one of the greatest actresses. Seriously—she lives Catelyn Stark. There is nothing for me to do. There is a sequence when Black Walder has locked the doors and the music is playing—she knows something is very, very wrong. We played a recording of the music and had the band there so she could react to it. Once she realizes Roose Bolton is in on it, she disregards herself completely. She is a mother trying to protect her son. You can see her lose her will to live before she dies herself. Her performance was magnificent.
RICHARD MADDEN (ROBB STARK): I deliberately didn’t read any books ahead of each season; I didn’t want to know or preempt myself. I liked that each step took him closer to reaching his potential, but I needed it to be a surprise for me.
That said, I was aware of the Red Wedding from the beginning. David and Dan explained just how big the sequence was and how in many ways, the series was about getting to that place. After that, lots of people were more than happy to fill me in before I got to it in the books.
The camera gets the perfect angle.
It was hard to film, but what I tried to do was to block it out while filming during that week. I was keen not to anticipate anything in my actions. I wanted it to be clean, because Robb doesn’t know what is going to happen. I wanted to be able to play those scenes with honest joy and relief, because that is what Robb would have been feeling. In the end, it felt like a surprise to me, because Robb didn’t see it coming. Really, it’s only Catelyn who does.
Working with Michelle [Fairley] was amazing. In every new job as an actor you are put in a situation where you have to throw yourself into it and just trust another actor. We ended up with a friendship that allowed us to start a scene in a place you never could with a person you had only just met. We already have the layers, the history of what we have already been through to build on. Michelle is an actress who you look in the eye and it’s very hard not to tell the truth with because she is so honest in her performance.
Robb and Catelyn have been on such a relentless journey. In many ways, Robb is like his father, which is also partly why their dynamic is so strong. It’s also something that drives the devastation—of all the marriages we have seen in Westeros, only Ned and Catelyn and Robb and Talisa are marriages of love. That’s part of the injustice of the situation. It’s born of something good. Yes, he broke his oath and his vows, but it’s like he was too young for it. I think he ended up there because of what was going on around him, with all the loss and betrayals to then have someone honest and loyal—well, maybe there was a world where things could have worked differently. In the end what we do have is a really great love story between the two characters. I think that’s what makes it harder on Catelyn—she can see that it’s honest and pure and she knows he’s doing the right thing to follow his heart, even if it’s the wrong thing politically.
That’s where the Starks fall down really; they follow their hearts and do what is fair and honest and just and not simply the right political move.
I didn’t go into the scene with any expectations of reaction. All I wanted was for it to be as surprising as it was in the books. I had it in my head that I wanted it to show him never giving up, even when the arrows are in him and Roose comes at him with the knife, that he would just keep fighting until his body stopped working. Then, when I got to that point I realized something about Robb. It wasn’t just about fighting until you can’t go anymore. There was a change in him, when Talisa went and he knew it was over. There was almost a relief to it. When he says “mother,” it’s as if he is saying “we can be at peace now.” They had been in such turmoil, fighting, fighting and never stopping trying to get everyone back. In hindsight I look at Catelyn and Robb and they were only ever fighting to keep each other alive.
It changed for me on set. He didn’t want to fight anymore. What are they fighting for, vengeance? He believes his family is dead. He’s won all these battles and done so well at being a man and this leader. Then he resigns when he’s lost the fight, and it gives him calm.
The pure anguish of Catelyn Stark.
After the mayhem of the Red Wedding, the Hound begins a new stage of his journey, now as Arya’s protector.
Joffrey and Margaery are bound together in marriage.
PART FIVE
resetting the game
* * *
“Our alliance with the Lannisters remains every bit as necessary for them as it is unpleasant. The Iron Throne may be the worst chair in the world, but they’re not through sitting in it.”
— Lady Olenna Tyrell
After the Red Wedding, the main threat to the Lannisters’ hold on the Iron Throne has been eliminated. Robb Stark is dead, his forces have been massacred, and his alliances are in tatters. Yet peace and security remain elusive at King’s Landing. Stannis Baratheon still pursues his claim to the throne, and across the narrow sea, Daenerys Targaryen is nurturing dragons and gathering an army in preparation for her own arrival in Westeros. Meanwhile, unsettling news from the North indicates twin dangers: an advancing wildling army followed, so rumor has it, by the legendary undead White Walkers.
Further, even the Lannisters’ most important alliance, with House Tyrell, remains fraught with political gamesmanship, and new players, such as House Martell in Dorne, are stepping out from the shadows, eager to make their own moves.
— building the forge, casting the swords —
Concept painting of the completed forge.
* * *
The opening episode of season four (Episode 401, “Two Swords”) includes a scene that is only a few minutes long. There is no dialogue. There is no violence. Instead, we simply watch as Ned Stark’s iconic blade Ice is melted down to create two new swords for Jaime Lannister and King Joffrey. This represents something that by now all view
ers know—the Lannisters have subdued and, for the moment, vanquished the Starks.
The scene’s brevity belies the immense work that went into filming it. Over several months, a working forge was built into the cellars of one of the buildings of Shane’s Castle, just outside Belfast, and numerous technical tests were run by the SFX department. Offsite, prop elements representing every stage of the smithing process were ready to be used: billets (unfinished blades) swapped in or out to be worked on depending on the requirements on a shot, some pre-forged with fullers (grooves along the length) and some ready to have them added. The stage was set.
The first day of filming was an unusually hot day in July, and the temperatures inside the confined set were over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). As the heat rose to the arched ceilings, hundreds of tiny spiders threaded down into the room, dangling only a few inches above the heads of the crew, while the blacksmith (armorer Tommy Dunne) and his assistant (assistant armorer Steven Murphy) worked on the blades.
* * *
TOMMY DUNNE (ARMORER): Playing the blacksmith was a bit of an in-house joke, which I wasn’t sure was going to really happen, but it was great to be involved on screen. Both Steve and I had a great time on the day. During filming, we couldn’t really work as we would in reality. We had plenty of premade swords: one billet of full fatness, semi-beaten, half beaten, half drawn, quarter drawn (which is essentially a thinner blade), no fullers, partial fullers, and completed fullers, which could be swapped into a shot as needed. The original Ice blade is quite safe. SFX created a wax melt and aluminium bronze alloy to “cheat” the process.
STUART BRISDON (SFX SUPERVISOR): We wanted to get the fantastic look of the real metal pour, so we made our own smelter and melted down bronze in a ceramic crucible. A lot of the work was done by Laurence Harvey, one of our senior SFX technicians. We chose to use bronze for this element of the shoot, even though it was the wrong metal, because it had the lowest melting point and that made it easier to work with. The crucible that held the molten alloy could withstand heats of up to 1,200 degrees Celsius [2,190 degrees Fahrenheit], and when full it weighed around twelve pounds. To add to the visual impact, we added charcoal dust to the areas the metal would run, causing tiny flares as it ignited. We fixed a cinnamon shaker on a long pole above the forge, which sprinkled coal dust over the pour and forge to create sparks for the camera.
Originally, we had hoped to do the melt of the blade for real, but in the end we found that it was simply too impractical. So we started working with wax that could be melted quickly and efficiently. During the testing process, we discovered that if you added fluorescent orange dye to the wax and then lit it from beneath with an ultraviolet light, it took on the appearance of molten metal. The only downside was that this could not be done on the actual forge, so for the actual melt, we had to build a special heatproof glass mold insert with heated elements and the light underneath creating the glow.
The VFX team oversees the pour of molten bronze for the close-up shot.
Laurence was also responsible for building the forge. In a real forge, the hot area is actually a very limited space, but we wanted a larger flamed area. The forge got up to such temperatures underneath that a cooling system was constantly running to cool the gas pipes and run through the jackets that surrounded the burners so they didn’t melt in the heat. The tank reservoir outside was actually boiling at some points during the day.
TOMMY DUNNE (ARMORER): The final blades for Joffrey and Jaime were my designs. I like to design things in my head, knowing the Lannisters and the need for them to be both ornate and highly luxurious. Incorporating the lion’s head in a way that hadn’t been seen before was a bit tricky. Previously, it’s been an impression—this year I wanted to create something that included the whole head and had the cross-guard coming out of a pommel textured with the lion’s fur. I was very fortunate to work with the concept artist Peter McKinstry, who realized my design by looking at the elements in the workshop and an in-depth description.
HOUSE TYRELL: A BRIEF HISTORY
“Roses are boring, dear. ‘Growing Strong.’ Ha! The dullest words of any house.”
—Lady Olenna Tyrell
The Tyrells watch a royal wedding that makes them grow even stronger.
ruling over the rich and fertile lands of the reach from its seat in Highgarden, House Tyrell is the foremost noble family in Westeros, with their wealth and military strength second only to the Lannisters. Historically, the Tyrells were stewards to the kings of the Reach, but this changed when the last king, Mern IX, was killed by Aegon the Conqueror during the blood-soaked battle at the Field of Fire. After Aegon’s victory, it was the duty of the steward, Lord Harlen Tyrell, to surrender for his fallen king. When Tyrell pledged fealty to the new Targaryen ruler, Aegon granted the Tyrells dominion over the Reach and named them Wardens of the South, lending the family all the power and wealth of the position.
Later, when Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark rebelled against the Mad King Aerys, the Tyrells remained steadfastly loyal to the Targaryen royal family. However, their loyalty didn’t outweigh their pragmatism. After Lannister forces claimed victory at the Sack of King’s Landing, and the Targaryen dynasty was all but annihilated, the Tyrells swore allegiance to the new king, Robert Baratheon.
Most recently, after the death of Robert Baratheon and the subsequent battles for rule of Westeros, the Tyrells allied themselves with Robert’s charismatic youngest brother, Renly. They arranged for Renly to marry Margaery Tyrell, who would become queen if Renly succeeded and thus put Tyrell heirs on the Iron Throne. This hope was foiled when Renly was murdered, but the Tyrells adeptly shifted their marriage plans. Margaery arrived in King’s Landing and, guided by her grandmother Lady Olenna Tyrell, usurped Sansa Stark as Joffrey’s intended bride. Now, Margaery wages her own campaign to win over the people for the unpopular young King Joffrey.
House Tyrell family tree.
The indomitable Lady Olenna (Diana Rigg).
OLENNA TYRELL
“The world is overflowing with horrible things, but they’re all a tray of cakes next to death.”
—Lady Olenna Tyrell
Lady Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg), known as the Queen of Thorns for the sting of her words, is the matriarch of the powerful Tyrell family and a masterful strategist. Sharp-tongued and keenly intelligent, she has little patience for idiocy and is rather disdainful of those she finds weak-witted. A superior player at court games, she has come to King’s Landing to attend the wedding of her granddaughter Margaery Tyrell to King Joffrey and secure all possible advantages for House Tyrell. This includes encouraging Margaery’s brother, Loras, to marry Sansa Stark, and thereby claim a strong foothold in the North for House Tyrell. Yet this attempt is thwarted by Tywin Lannister, who marries Sansa to Tyrion Lannister instead. Deeply mistrustful of everyone, Olenna’s only true motivation is loyalty to her family.
Two masters of strategy spar while walking the garden paths.
DIANA RIGG (OLENNA TYRELL): I didn’t know the books or the show before I met with David and Dan about Olenna, but I loved her immediately. She’s just a ballsy old bag; she’s subtle and witty and sophisticated and at the same time so brutal. I love all those mixtures. She’s a tremendously strong woman, and I think that has to do with breeding. In my mind, she comes from a long, long line of strong women, and she just isn’t daunted by many people. It’s partly age as well—she’s lived through a lot, survived more than most, and I think that makes her feel very strong.
CHARLES DANCE (TYWIN LANNISTER): Olenna is like the female Tywin Lannister. She’s really the only one who can truly spar on the same level.
DAVID BENIOFF AND D. B. WEISS (CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS AND WRITERS): Olenna is an iron lady in a man’s world. She can’t hold office or any title beyond “Lady,” but that doesn’t stop her from being the driving force behind the second most powerful family in the world. She’s a spectacularly fun character to write for. At heart, both of us have alway
s been tough seventy-year-old women.
The fact that Diana would grace us with her presence seemed unlikely. Then she agreed to meet us with Nina Gold for a drink in London. We asked her what she thought about it. She said, “An awful lot of bonking, isn’t there? I love it.” You can’t put on presence like hers. She really is Olenna, only she is a tremendously sweet woman who, to our knowledge, has never had anyone killed.
HOUSE MARTELL: A BRIEF HISTORY
“Tell your father I’m here. And tell him the Lannisters aren’t the only ones who pay their debts.”
—Oberyn Martell
Tyrion and Bronn meet the Martell delegation.
unlike the other six kingdoms of westeros, Dorne was not conquered by Aegon Targaryen and his dragons. The Dornish denied Aegon a victory by using guerrilla tactics and pursuing a war of attrition in the desert. Ultimately, Aegon left Dorne without getting the Dornish to bend the knee. The Martells’ pride over this is reflected in their sigil’s words: “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.”
