I only keep Charles parts cos...the info is about the screenplay he's working on
In the second of our three Game of Thrones panels we chatted to two
dastardly Lannisters and the honourable Brienne of Tarth to celebrate the
release of Game Of Thrones: The Complete Second Season on Blu-ray and DVD this
week.
Season Two sees Charles Dance return as Lannister patriarch Tywin, who
plans his strategy against the Starks and Baratheons in an effort to keep his
grandson Joffrey on the Iron Throne.
Please note that there was a inordinate amount of laughter and naughtiness
from these three who have a very obvious fondness for one another.
It was the biggest battle that’s ever been televised, I believe.
Gwendoline Christie: On a personal level I really thoroughly enjoyed the
scene in episode 10 between Jaime and Brienne.
Charles Dance: How do you remember it all in such detail?
CD:Oh God, I cant remember! It's such a long time ago. It’s just a great
series to work on you know. The scenes that we’re given to play are so well
written. It all kind of merges into one.
NCW: They’re not memorable though, are they? [Laughs]
CD: Smartarse.
GC: I know, I know dear.
CD: How do you deal with him?
The two of you, Charles and Nikolaj, are obviously both in Season One
and nobody knew how big it would be, both critically and commercially. How was
it coming back into Season Two when you knew that. Was there a sense of
confidence?
CD: You are so full of shit!
NCW: It's true though! So it was big surprise to everyone. Clearly.
CD: I was surprised that he was back! [laughs] No I think we were all
aware that we were dealing with something that was pretty bloody good,
actually. The production values are great and the quality of the writing is
wonderful. I would have been astonished knowing the number of books there are
there’s a wealth of source material if we hadn’t continued after Season One.
Of all of the things you had to learn for your parts, was there any
skill that was useful for real life?
CD: Not really. No.
Gwendoline, women have a major role in the story. Your character is very
much a warrior. I would like your insight on the role that women play in the
show.
CD: I can only agree with that, really. The women have to be more
devious and more scheming than the men. Not just as much as, but more so, to
get anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms. I think.
Charles, do you listen to Rammstein or death metal before you go on or
something?
CD: No, I just learn the lines and avoid the furniture. [Gwendoline
laughs]. And pretend. That’s what we’re doing. I haven’t come across anything
yet that I’ve had to go off and do deep preparation for. We have the good
fortune of having really, really good scripts to work with.
Your characters do some pretty bad things throughout the series. How do
you empathise and get into their heads? How do the characters justify their
actions?
CD: Well we’re pretending. We’re in a mythical world. If it’s likened to
anything it’s like the medieval period which was ruthless and cruel and feudal.
And I think most of us have been doing it long enough to have done a fair
amount of history in our work and we know what that period is about. As I say,
even though this is mythical that’s my terms of reference anyway for this
thing. And although there are a lot of pretty nasty things happening in the
world now, we’re a lot more civilised than life was then. But y’know, we
pretend, because that’s the way people behaved.
Nikolaj, do you have to get dragged away from the happiest place on
Earth, Denmark to work in unforgiving locations and in uncomfortable clothing?
NCW: Yes!
CD: “Happiest place on Earth?” Is that really?
NCW: The happiest people.
CD: Is that so?
There are a couple of really huge battle sequences in Season Two....
CD: Well they’re carefully choreographed, you know, for safety reasons
and shot in bits and pieces and then all thrown together in the cutting room.
But it’s guys marshalling their forces for the directors. But they’re all
pretty experienced at doing that kind of thing and we also have a very good
outfit that provide most of the horses. It’s an outfit called The Devil’s
Horsemen that are based in this country and the horses are really, really good.
Quite often in movies you get some terrible riding school nag that’s been
ridden into the ground and doesn’t respond to any of the normal signals you
give him. But I think, in my experience anyway, we’re quite lucky and there’s
some bloody good horses on this actually, which is great for us. They do as
they’re told, when they’re told.
What was your most memorable day of shooting?
CD: I had some scenes with a young actress called Maise [Williams] who was
13 at the time. And I was just astonished working with her because she’s just
so very, very good, and her understanding of the medium and what the scenes
were about, and her tirelessness because we work quite long days. She was an
absolute joy to work with, but then I have the pleasure of working most of the
time with Peter Dinklage who is phenomenally gifted. He must be the envy of
every dwarf actor in the world, I should think. Parts like this don’t come
along very often for people who are not little people. But for people like
Peter it’s very, very rare. And he’s a joy to work with because he’s so good
and he’s also a very, very nice guy. Tywin Lannister treats him like shit and I
spend a lot of time apologising at the end of scenes. “I’m so sorry Peter for
some of the things I’ve had to say to you." But I just like working,
really.
Charles, over the last 25 years you’ve stared in many movies as well as
TV shows. How would you describe the development of the TV industry over the
last ten years?
CD: Well Gwen was saying earlier actually that the dividing line
between film and television is becoming more and more blurred now. I think that
the quality of television that’s coming out, especially out of America now is
really, really good. Gone are the days when we would rather pompously say in
this country, “we make the finest television in the world”. Well we don’t
anymore. We used to and we still produce some pretty good television. But what
is coming in from America… the best of American television is phenomenal.
Because they spend money in the right places. In this country we seem to be
kind of more concerned with making junk reality television or spending money on
real estate which is what the BBC tends to do a lot of the time now. And
there’s some very, very good television being made. Film wise the British film
industry is still a cottage industry, of course it is one because of lack of
finance, but the thing that people never ever talk about is we have the worst
climate in the world to accommodate a film industry. That’s why we have a
cottage industry because you can never know from one day to the next whether
the sun is going to shine or whether it’s going to piss down with rain.
Were you into something that was really important to you when you were a
teenager?
CD: I used to worship Steve McQueen. I saw every film Steve McQueen
ever made and a whole bunch of us would wait for the next Steve McQueen movie.
It didn’t matter what it was. I was a big fan of his. But I never dressed up as
any of Steve McQueen’s characters. Or went to Comic Cons or anything like that.
He just had enormous presence the minute he walked on the screen you couldn’t
take your eyes off him. He wasn’t the greatest actor in the world, but he was a
movie star and the king of cool. And to my delight a few years ago I managed to
acquire a Ford Mustang which I’d always wanted having seen Bullitt. And I kept
it for as long as I could.
Charles, a few years ago you directed Ladies In Lavender. Is there any
chance of you directing an episode of Game Of Thrones – if you could get the
time?
CD: I don’t think they’d let me. I’m just about to finish a screenplay for
something that I’m gonna do next year.
Will you be directing that as well?
CD: Yeah. And there is another thing in the pipeline that I might....
well I’m talking to HBO about it in fact, but I don’t want to tell you what it
is!
Looking ahead to Season Three, is there anything you can tell us to look
out for without spoiling the plot?
CD: Look out for the arrival of Dame Dianna Rigg, a kind of female
version of Tywin Lannister, we had a lot of sparring to do.
