‘GoT’ Star Carice van Houten Says She ‘Improvised’ Jon Snow Resurrection Scene
Written by SOURCE on September 24, 2019
After winning a record fourth Emmy award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series last night, Peter Dinklage, who played Tyrion Lannister, had a portion of his acceptance speech bleeped out.
In case you were wondering what he said, Dinklage was acknowledging the “10 years of absolute sweat” that went into creating Game of Thrones before he referred to the show’s cast and crew as “the most talented, motherfucking people.” Following that absence in personal censorship, Dinklage told the stunned audience, “Hey, it’s over, I don’t care.”
That IDGAF attitude may be a running sentiment for the cast of Thrones now that the hit HBO show is in the rearview mirror with the conclusion of the Emmys.
While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter following Sunday’s ceremony, Carice van Houten, who portrayed Melisandre, revealed that she “improvised the shit out of” her performance in the resurrection of Jon Snow from Season 6.
“The whole revival, the resurrection of Jon Snow, I improvised the shit out of that,” van Houten said. “Nobody saw it. I mean, I’m sure there are a few people that said, ‘I knew what you were saying was wrong.’ I’m sorry. But, you know, it was a tricky time. It was a long day, and I just didn’t know my lines.”
Her improvisation in that scene comes from her speaking High Valyrian, a language that she admittedly struggled to speak without any throughline into its origins. “There’s no reference whatsoever,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Am I talking Hebrew? Greek? What is this language?’ But it was fun because I also felt like if I made a mistake, nobody will notice.”
As van Houten suspected, misspoken High Valyrian can go unnoticed, unlike that damn coffee cup.
Elsewhere in the interview, van Houten shared her opinion on show’s controversial ending. “I just love the fact that the whole throne was blown away. The whole thing was gone. I really loved it, and also the randomness of talking about who’s going to be king. The silliness of it was very smart. I thought, ‘This is what life is. Some dumbo can become president,'” van Houten said. “That’s the world we live in… We just sort of go, ‘Uh, that guy.’ It was smart that it was just sort of silly. I really liked it, to be honest.”
