Gemma Whelan was almost fired from Game of Thrones for this big blunder: ‘No one told me to keep quiet about it’

Actor Gemma Whelan, who played the ferocious Yara Greyjoy on Game of Thrones, was a hit with the show’s fans. But did you know that she was almost removed from the show immediately after she was hired in 2012?

In an interview with The Times, Gemma talked about the big goof-up she made that almost ended up costing her the job. All excited after signing on, Gemma thought that a part on Game of Thrones would look wonderful on her CV. So she made the update, posted it online where the fans found it and all hell broke lose.

“The first lesson I learnt was when I first got the job. No one told me to keep quiet about it. I just thought it was normal to pop it in my Spotlight entry, so I wrote on my CV, ‘This summer, Gemma will be playing Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones.’ And the internet went nuts. One of the lovely, lovely producers on Thrones called me into his office and said, ‘This is very serious. We almost can’t employ you because of this’,” she said. Of course, the drastic step was never taken and Gemma played Yara all the way until the final season in 2019.

The producers were always very cautious about not letting important plot points leak into the media or online. Things became even stricter after a few episodes were leaked during the last few seasons.

Also read: What Jerome Flynn said about not sharing any Game of Thrones scenes with ex-girlfriend Lena Headey

Gemma talked about being a part of Game of Thrones in an interview to Radio Times. “Game of Thrones really did change things in terms of how women are written and represented. Obviously, it was a fantasy, but the women were painted very realistically nonetheless. Maybe not the murdering side of things, but they were independent and capable of running the show,” she had said.

Other than Game of Thrones, Gemma was also seen on Netflix’s The End of the F***ing World, The Crown and Killing Eve.

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