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Nikolaj Coster Waldau chats 'Game Of Thrones'

Jamie Lanniste (Nikolaj Coster Waldau) from Game Of Thrones


We've already brought you a chat with Alfie Allen and Emilia Clarke, and now it's Nikolaj Coster Waldau's turn to tell you all about Game Of Thrones! Nikolaj plays Jaime Lannister, the scheming twin brother of Queen Cersei Lannister. We caught up with him with a couple of other journalists to chat about his character, whether we'll ever like Jaime, and whether fans of the books will be pleased with the series...

Your character's a bit nasty! What was it like playing a villain?
"Well, is he a villain? That's the whole question. I think what I like about George R. R. Martin's novels [which Game Of Thrones is based on] and all the characters is that it's not just black and white. Of course at the end of episode one he does something which is a horrible act, and you can't justify it. But what happens later on is that you do understand that he had very, very, very good reasons for doing what he did. What attracted me to the character was that he is complex. He has a somewhat complicated relationship to his family, to his sister in particular. It was just interesting to see, you can start out with a character from episode one where an audience will just not like this guy. Hopefully later on it will change."

So it's about how your character develops?
"Yes, exactly. Also, I think we all do things that we may have the best intentions, but sometimes those intentions end up hurting other people. We don't mean to, but we do - we still thought we were doing the right thing. This goes for all the characters in Game Of Thrones."

You mentioned the books earlier - have you read them?
"I've read the first book. I'm waiting - I'm hoping for a second season pickup and I'll read the second novel! But I know what happens."

Are you nervous about what the fans of the books will think?
"I'm scared! No, I'm not nervous. I do believe that most of the fans will like it and will accept that this is an adaptation. I'm also convinced there will be a - hopefully very small - minority that will absolutely hate what we've done to their novels, their characters, because they know exactly what it's supposed to look like. But, you know, there are a lot of fans of the books, which is fantastic, and they are very supportive so far. The idea's also to reach out to people who don't know about the books. I didn't know anything about the books before so hopefully a lot of other people will be interested in checking this out."

Was George involved in the production much?
"He's a co-executive producer. He did write one episode, so he was involved, but he wasn't on set. He visited but he was very gracious because he knew everyone was aware of his presence. He didn't comment on any performances or anything because he knew that if he did, actors would have died probably! Imagine if he'd come over and said, 'I think maybe you should do it like that' - you would do that. You'd go to the director and say, 'Sorry, George just told me to jump on one leg and I'm going to do that because that's right, that's his vision, I'm true to him'."

What's your favorite part about playing Jaime?
"Because I know what happens later on, the challenge in the beginning was how to balance that. I wanted to emphasise the less appealing aspects of his character early on so I had somewhere to go. So that was kind of a challenge. I didn't want him to be like 'the villain - mwahaha', but you still believe in him as a human being. It's difficult for him to relate to other people. He's not very sociable, if that makes sense."

You mentioned Jaime evolves - is that process similar to the book?
"It is similar. I think in the first book, he doesn't change that much. His physical situation is changed, but the internal change happens later. Of course, in the novel you can go into people's minds and heads - you can say what happened 100 years ago, 20 years ago. So we've added scenes where you kind of tell the story, why he's so bitter and why he has these issues with Ned Stark, Sean Bean's character. So it's hinted at."

Some people have said Game Of Thrones is all about power - how does your character fit in with that?
"He's caught up in it. He's a member of the most powerful family in the seven kingdoms. His problem is that he does not want to be part of the political world - it doesn't interest him. But he has this relationship - he says in episode one, 'The things I do for love'. I think that very much is at the core of him to begin with. He has chosen to enter the King's Guard - when you enter that, you can't marry. You say, 'I'm dedicating my life to this'. He does not like the world and the whole political aspect of the court but he has to be there because the woman he wants to be close to is there."

Some of the characters speak another language - Dothraki. Can you tell us anything about that?
"The worlds are very separate, and the whole Dothraki world, I didn't go to that world. That's a whole different part of the series. So that was a revelation just to see that for me. The Dothraki language - did you know they actually made a language? They had this guy from Berkeley create a new language, that's pretty amazing. That's another thing that goes through the whole series - because it's HBO they do attract amazing talent across the board. You have the set designers, art department, everyone - they're just at the top of their game and it shows."

Do you the think the fact that Game Of Thrones is set in a different world means that you can get away with more things?
"I think it's a story - I think you do accept whatever's thrown at you, in a way. When you tell a story, you make an agreement with the audience, 'I'm going to tell a story. And guess what, there's a dragon coming or whatever'." You can do whatever you want. Also because of the way the show starts, you kind of set up something - you may think you know what this is about, but there are other things at work."

Do you think television is as big as movies now?
"Yeah. It started years ago with all the cable networks emerging in America, with of course HBO leading the way. We've all seen these great, great shows - Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome - and now I think they do attract the very best filmmakers, the best actors. The idea that you can tell a story and you have more time, it attracts a lot of people. Especially the fact that they do spend the money."

Did the show have a big movie feel on set?
"It was huge, yeah. We were shooting the exterior stuff in Belfast - the Paint Hall, where they painted the Titanic. It's a big place. I remember walking round the set and outside you had these massive set pieces, just scattered around. It looked insane. Then you walked in and they'd built this throne room from wall to wall. Normally they only build a portion - like a quarter or half - but here it was the whole thing. It's huge."

There's a big cast, too.
"It's one big family! The thing is, at one point they had three units working at the same time. You had a main unit with 100 people and a second with 80 people and a third with 60 people. It was big. Two catering companies at the same time! It was almost shocking how many people were involved in it."

Has starring in Game Of Thrones made you want to do more fantasy?
"Not necessarily. I've never really been into that whole thing of separating into genres. It's like music - you like good music, it's not like I can only listen to grunge or whatever. The same with this. These scripts are really well-written so that's what attracted me. So anything good."


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