'Game of Thrones' star Ellie Kendrick reveals what it's like to find out about a character death on set
Ellie Kendrick knows firsthand what it's like to maintain the intense level of secrecy on the "Game of Thrones" set.
Kendrick โ who plays Meera Reed, Bran Stark's traveling partner and protector on the HBO hit โ said that watching the show can be just as surprising for her as it is for the fans.
"Itโs super-duper difficult, even as an actor, to get ahold of a script," Kendrick told Business Insider at the "Game of Thrones: Behind the Scenes" event on Friday in New York City, in honor of the newly released season-six Blu-ray/DVD set.
"You have to go through all of these security processes before theyโll let you have them," Kendrick continued. "As an actor, you donโt even see the stuff that youโre not in some of the time. Theyโre very careful about getting the scripts out there."
For example, Kendrick found out that Jon Snow would be returning to the series pretty much the same way the fans did.
"Iโd seen Kit [Harington] in town, so I knew he was kind of back," Kendrick, who primarily shoots her scenes in Northern Ireland, said. "We all had to keep our mouths shut, but thatโs part of the fun of being a part of this series."
That, of course, extends to character deaths, which the actors are typically in the dark about until it's pretty much upon them.
"Thereโs an atmosphere of fear at times on the set," Kendrick said. "You never know. You never get told youโre going to die. Any actor on โGame of Thronesโ is lying if they say they donโt do this. The first thing you do is skip through the script: โDo I die? Do I die?โ So, yeah, itโs all a surprise to us."
Death is pretty final on the show โ unless you're Jon Snow or Daenarys Targaryen, of course โ and the executive producers have taken advantage of the situation for a few laughs.
"The producers can be very cheeky with it," Kendrick said. "Theyโve even sometimes written in fake deaths. So the actors will sometimes read a death scene that they just get given. It happened to Alfie Allen. They gave him a fake scene that theyโd written where he died. He was like, โHuh [gasps], I die?โ They played a big trick on him, which was hilarious."
As for Meera's future on the show, you guessed it: Kendrick knows very little about her character's future.
"Iโm genuinely not lying when I tell you I donโt know," she said. "So itโs as much as a surprise to me as it is for the people who are watching it. Iโm yet to find out whatโs going to happen to Meera. Fingers crossed, something good."
Additional reporting by Chris Snyder.
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