GAMES of Thrones actor Charles Dance reveals he’s got a thing for Khaleesi and reckons his character Tywin Lannister deserved to die on the loo.
October 02, 2014
You were over here a couple of months ago shooting the Foxtel drama Deadline Gallipoli. How did it go?
Well, we lost. An awful lot of people were killed ... Oh, it was great. While we were of course pretending we were suffering in the heat of Turkey, it was winter in Adelaide. But it’s a bloody good story and a very ambitious project. It felt as if it was going to be terrific, so let’s hope it will be.
You’re becoming a regular. You were in Melbourne not so long ago making the horror film Patrick ...
Indeed. Then a few years before that I did the Sydney Theatre Festival — Ralph Fiennes and I both did one-man shows. I love Australia, I just wish it wasn’t 12,000 miles away from anywhere else (laughs).
Was seeing the world part of the dream when you first got into acting?
Well no, but in 40 years or so of doing it I’ve seen more of the world than my brother who was in the navy for 25-30 years. If I was to put a little flag in everywhere I’ve been in the world, there’d be a lot of little flags. It’s one of the reasons I very rarely take a holiday because I’m lucky enough in this business to invariably go off to somewhere I’ve never been before. Although having said that, I’m going to Greece next week purely because I haven’t had a lying around in the sun holiday for a very long time.
Does your new film Dracula Untold mark the first vampire you’ve ever played?
No, it’s the second — I did one of the Underworld films a couple of years ago. But I’ve never done a vampire quite like this: I’m a thousand years old, I’ve been down in a cave forever. Not a pretty sight!
Does putting on the vampire make-up instantly change the way people react to you?
Yeah, with this particular character they tended to recoil in horror or walk the other way.
What was your co-star Luke Evans’ reaction to you basically nuzzling on his neck?
Well, he’s great. ’Cos here he is this handsome hunk of a leading man and he’s generous to a fault — because I went completely to town, I was chewing up the scenery and being wildly over the top, crawling all over him and licking his neck.
Do you recall a monster story that both scared and fascinated you as a child?
Not visually, no. But I’ll tell you, there’s something I’ve never forgotten: it was a long time before we had a television in our house, but the wireless was always on and I can remember the voice of an actor I later knew was called Patrick Magee, an Irish actor. I heard this when I was about 11 and I can remember this voice talking about the death of the Marquis de Sade and saying: ‘And they tied his arms and legs to four horses and gee’d them up ...’ I’ve never forgotten that horrendous image.
You mentioned Luke Evans being the handsome leading man. Was that a position you aspired to when you first stepped in front of a camera?
Oh I just wanted to work, darling! It surprised me when I actually had a brief period of romantic leading man when I did films like White Mischief and a television series called The Jewel in the Crown — it was a long time ago (in the 1980s). But it was never an ambition of mine because I think I’ve got a quite a peculiar face; there are some angles I should not be photographed from. It is not the ideal face for a romantic leading man. You need to have a face like Luke or Johnny Depp where they look just as good from any angle.
Your time on Game of Thrones has come to an end. What did you enjoy about playing Tywin Lannister?
Well, that series has become the global phenomenon that it is, one, because of the quality of the writing, and two, because HBO spend money on it so standards are maintained. It looks sensational, there are some breathtaking sequences. And Tywin was a great character to play because although the thing is set in this mythical land, it’s nevertheless based on a medieval, feudal society where you did what you had to do to maintain your position in that society — and that’s what Tywin Lannister did. But I did spend a lot of time apologising to little Peter Dinklage, who I adore, because I treated him like s--- all the time. Some of the things I said to him were horrendous. But you can’t take someone like Tywin Lannister too seriously as an actor; I was always laughing at how horrendously he behaved.
When playing a villain, do you as an actor need to have a justification for his bad behaviour?
Absolutely not. A while ago, I did a television adaptation of Bleak House and the character I played, as far as I was concerned, had no redeeming features whatsoever. I wasn’t about to try to find any, I didn’t need to. He was a complete bastard. That’s what I had to do.
So you must have thought it a fitting end for Tywin, sitting on his other throne — the loo?
An ignominious death, yes (laughs). I knew that his demise was coming at some point but I didn’t know what it was until somebody in the street told me, actually. I was walking along and this guy came up and he said (adopts cockney accent), ‘You’re Tywin Lannister! It’s great, Game of Thrones! You’ve got this great death scene’. I said, ‘Oh, have I? What is the manner of my death?’ And he told me. I thought, ‘Oh, right ... OK!’ So knew it was coming. I hope it works. I haven’t seen it, actually.
Do you see much of your work once you leave the set?
Sometimes. I don’t like watching television too much; it tires me out for some reason. But I saw a fair bit of Game of Thrones because it was so good. I mostly watched episodes that I wasn’t in. The plots were so labyrinth-like it would take me hours to read them, so I’d just wait until it eventually came on television and I could sit and watch it and find out what’s going on on the other side of the Seven Kingdoms or what the Mother of Dragons is up to. That’s a great storyline, actually, that whole dragon thing is fantastic.
It has been 10 years since you wrote and directed Ladies in Lavender, with the wonderful Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Are you likely to direct a film again?
Well, I’ve written something else that I’m trying to raise money for at the moment. I don’t care whose money it is, as long as they give it to me. I’m getting close to it but you can never tell until you’re actually on the set that the thing is going to go. But, oh yes, I fully intend to.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/game-of-thrones-star-charles-dance
