As Game of Thrones fans brace for the much-awaited finale, actor Iwan Rheon recalled his time in the show on RT, and suggested that Daenerys, a central character of the epic, had “lost it in the end.”
“Daenerys, she lost it in the end,” Iwan Rheon recalled during a sit-down with RT. “I kind of saw that coming from a while back,” he added. Going further, the Welsh actor stated that his vile character, Ramsay Bolton, was doomed to go to add more intrigue to the epic.
“I think he went in the right way, at the right time,” Rheon said in a sit-down interview with RT. “Because, what else was he going to do?”
“They had to get rid of him, and they did it in a great way. And I was happy with my death, it was a pretty epic death,” he said.
Ramsay Bolton, one of the most murderous characters in the show, died at the end of season 6 after being eaten alive by his hungry dogs. Rheon said the show’s narrative didn’t allow for Ramsay to last any longer.
I think he needed to be sort of gotten rid of in order... to create that drama and intrigue between Sansa and Daenerys and Jon Snow obviously. He needed to go, characters like Ramsay, they needed to go at some point.
However, Rheon didn’t know that season 6 would be his last. “It was a bit of a shock” to learn that, and “a bit disappointing,” he said.
The show, which premiered on HBO in 2011, was shot in Northern Ireland and other locations such as Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Scotland, and the US. Earlier this year, it was reported that those who made it to season 8 had to spend a few weeks shooting in difficult weather conditions.
Apart from that, the actors also had to find ways to cope with the disturbing scenes they played in. “We [would] just get out and play pool, have dinner and a couple of beers, and talk about football,” Rheon said.
At any rate, making the show was an experience to remember.
What’s wonderful about it, it’s that the show is bigger than the cast, everyone is working to create something that they know is brilliant and it’s really nice to be part of something like that.
All in all, playing ruthless Ramsay was something that fit into Rheon’s artistic nature. “I’ve never been a Romeo, you know what I mean? I really enjoyed playing more complex roles.”
Before joining Game of Thrones, Rheon featured in British sci-fi comedy drama Misfits, playing social outcast Simon Bellamy. “In order to make [these characters] not be face value… and be three-dimensional and to have complexities... you need a specific kind of actor, a weird person,” he said.
