Whether they’re delivering devastatingly adroit dialogue opposite dragons and direwolves, or simply being on the receiving end of any number of satisfying slaps, the cast members of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” franchise have taken the hits, said the lines, and come out with some hard-won wisdom on the craft. With the universe still expanding through the prequels “House of the Dragon” and “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” here’s what the actors of the realm have learned about the craft.
“Winter is coming”: Preparation is key
“The only advice I can give is ‘Be incredibly lucky.’ I’m perfectly willing to acknowledge that a lot of luck is involved, but you also have to possess the skills when someone is looking for those skills. It’s about timing.” —John Bradley
“I think the more you act, the better you get at acting. It’s a muscle…. Basically, my whole M.O. for acting and life is just to try really, really hard. I do all the prep I possibly can. I read all the acting books, break down every scene, and do all the actions, objectives, and moments.” —Charlotte Hope
“I feel like I have to tailor my method to the specific character and the specific project. And I think different directors require different ways of working. Different acting styles are appropriate for different projects.” —Hannah Murray
“Don’t take any of it too seriously, but work really hard…. I remember I had a teacher I adored at drama school who said, ‘Talent without discipline is a bad habit.’ As a young person, I wasn’t a particularly hard worker. I’d wing it; I was inventing. Don’t dwell on the disappointment, because there will be so many. Take all the work you can. Don’t judge the work.” —Indira Varma
Credit: Macall B. Polay/HBO
“What do we say to the god of death? Not today”: Trust the process
“It’s very easy to look back now and go, ‘Yeah, I made the right decision, and I always knew.’ But nobody ever knows how any of this is gonna go.” —Peter Claffey
“Enjoy experiences in the moment more. With anything that starts out as a hobby and becomes a job, you can let adult anxieties creep into it…. I’ve tried to enjoy the experience as it’s happening rather than looking back on it with rose-tinted spectacles.” —Joe Dempsie
“Sometimes nerves can get the better of me. I had one [audition] where I was so nervous that I walked out the room and vomited in the bathroom afterward. I’ve gotten better at dealing with them. I genuinely believe that my love of yoga and learning to breathe [has helped me]. The first thing that goes is your heart rate going super fast. In yoga they say to use your breath to control your heart rate, and that’s helped me. [Auditioning] is psychological, so take a moment to compose yourself.” —Nathalie Emmanuel
“If you can’t deal with rejection—that painful feeling of rejection early on—you’re not going to get particularly far. You’re not going to enjoy it.” —Kit Harington
“Olivia Colman has said that she always worries that she’ll never work again after every job. And I think that’s the lamentation of every actor. It’s precarious, especially at the moment. So I feel very grateful that I’ve managed to keep working this year, though I’m already looking ahead and wondering what’s next. But I’ve never lost hope, because my passion for performing has never diminished.” —Gemma Whelan
Credit: Macall B. Polay/HBO
“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you”: Lean into your uniqueness
“You’re the only you…. Embrace your quirks and idiosyncrasies.” —Aidan Gillen
“A piece of advice I give a lot of my actor friends is to take risks. I think people watch so many self-tapes that there needs to be something that stands out about you. [Don’t be afraid to] take a really strange risk, like using a stupid prop or doing something with a crazy background—as long as it goes with whatever you’re doing. And commit to it.” —Maisie Williams
“You know nothing, Jon Snow”: Lean into the mystery of the craft
“Acting is kind of a mercurial thing, and sometimes you just go, I actually have no idea how I do any of it.” —Sam Spruell
“Nobody knows anything. And if you meet someone who thinks they know everything, that’s not [someone] you want to work with.” —Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
“When you play a game of thrones, you win or you die—there is no middle ground”: Go all in
“Whatever layers I try to give the character in order to make a more nuanced performance—ultimately, it’s not going to please everyone. But that’s just what I have to do in order to give a decent, honest performance: I have to imbue it with just things that justify the characters, actions, and emotions. And those might not necessarily be in the original text—or even in the scripts.” —Olivia Cooke
“There’s only so much that I can feel about a character by intellectualizing them. I have to be them. And the only time I’m ever going to fully be them is when I’m in costume, in makeup, on set, the camera is rolling, and someone says action…. Every new project, I’m like, Is this the one where I just won’t be able to do it? But it’s amazing how much of it happens when the camera is rolling for the first time.” —Bella Ramsey
