Euron Greyjoy was the mad pirate king of “Game of Thrones,” one of the few characters who seemed to be enjoying himself, even if it was at the expense of others. (RIP, Rhaegal.) After Dany took revenge and burned down his fleet in Sunday’s episode, he jumped ship and managed to come ashore at just the right time and place to have it out with his romantic rival, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), in a knockdown slugfest that left the Kingslayer mortally wounded and Euron presumably dead on the rocks.
In a phone call Monday, the actor Pilou Asbaek, who plays Euron, chatted about his character’s strangely happy ending. Following are edited excerpts from that conversation.
Q: You told me in an interview once that every time you do a Euron scene, you try to pick something new that you want to reveal about him. What did you want to reveal this season?
A: OK, so the first one in Episode 1, I wanted him to be casual with his family. To say: “You know what? You’re my niece. You’re here, and it’s OK.” I wanted him to be cool about it. The second scene, I wanted him to be a bit more provocative toward Cersei, because up until that point, he’d only been provocative toward Jaime. “My heart is nearly broken,” all that (expletive).
And then in her private chambers, I actually wanted him be as honest as he could be. I would have loved to examine that side of him much more. And the battle scenes, those are just physical, so that’s difficult to do, although you can do it as a madman, the guy who is a complete psycho with a smile and the laughter. And the final scene, I wanted some kind of poetic justice for him. Something elegant, like a ballet dance.
Q: Do you think it’s a happy ending? He at least dies with a smile on his face.
A:I think he’s the only one with a happy end. The character was so lucky. He got to go to bed with the queen. He got to kill a dragon. And he almost killed Jaime Lannister. So out of my five scenes this season, three of them were spectacular or fun. First of all, the way they’ve written those scripts, so much is put into it. You can just relax, enjoy it, be in it as much as possible and wait for that moment for your character to shine. It’s so well-written that every single character has at least a couple of those moments … until they die.
When we did the table read, the only thing I told ( series’ showrunners, David Benioff and Dan Weiss) was, “Guys, I don’t want to die.” And they were like, “No, he gets stabbed by Jaime Lannister.” And I was like, “I’m not going to close my eyes.” And they were like, “Why?” And I said: “Because I want to do a spinoff! I want Euron to go on his ship Silence, and we follow him as he travels the world, as he finds the magical Dragonbinder horn, and he becomes a mysterious lord of the night!”
Q: The book plot that the show skipped, in other words. Perhaps they can still revisit that as they develop ideas for prequels.
A:I would have loved to have done that story, to do something closer to the book version, even as a miniseries. I’m so thankful for every single second I got with Euron. Just to do one minute on “Game of Thrones,” actors would die for it. I am so thankful I got to do three seasons — not many scenes, but the scenes that I’ve done, I’ve been the driving force. When I became a part of “Game of Thrones,” I didn’t know which way the character would go. I just knew to do the best work I could possibly do and to enjoy it.
But of course, to build a character, you need more time and space. So I denied dying. David and Dan were super cool with it because they thought it was fun. They were like: “Dude, you get stabbed by a sword through the chest. You’re going to die.” And I was like, “Eh, wait and see.”
Then I had a long discussion with (the episode’s director, Miguel Sapochnik) a couple of days prior to shooting the scene, and he was like: “You know what I feel when I read the script? I feel like he’s the only one who is kind of happy, because he feels like his life has been fulfilled.” So I was like: “You know what, Miguel? I like that. I’m going to go out with a smile.”
Q: Euron seems especially pleased with the idea that he might have killed the Kingslayer. Has he been obsessed with Jaime Lannister all along? Why does he care?
A:It’s a fascination. Jaime is one of the male leads, and I’m a supporting role, so my story line is reflected in the main characters’ story line. You need to find ways to connect the characters and fill out those gaps. And I think David and Dan thought it would be fun if Jaime Lannister and Euron Greyjoy had a fight. And maybe they just thought: “You know what? Maybe it’s fun that (the actor playing Euron) is Danish, and 15 years younger, and they know each other. Maybe (Coster-Waldau) will be irritated!” You never know with David and Dan because they’re pranksters. They’re tricksters.
Q: They called it “Dane Bowl” on the behind-the-scenes feature.
A:Dane Bowl! That’s what it said in the script, too. “Two men enter, one man leaves.” Except one of them doesn’t want to accept that he’s dying! (Laughs) Those scenes were tricky because of the tide, so we couldn’t shoot it chronologically, which is always irritating when you’re doing fight scenes where you’ve rehearsed the choreography for weeks.
It’s very interesting, choreography. The more you rehearse it, the more natural you can make it look. It’s like saying a line. If I told you “I love you,” but I hadn’t rehearsed it, it would be too emotional. But if I say it a million times, I devaluate the sensitiveness of it, and then it sounds real. It’s the same thing with choreography. When you practice it a million times, you can make it look spontaneous. Practice equals spontaneity.
But it’s one thing to do it in some room in Belfast and another on a real beach, with real rocks. Fighting for two days, you get tired, and when you get tired, you make mistakes. So we got injured. Nothing dramatic, you know, but it hurts to bump your head on a rock or kick a sandbag.
Q: What do you make of the fan video depicting Euron as the Bowmaster not only of everything in “Game of Thrones” but also of all geek fandom?
A: That is so (expletive) fun! The guy who did that is a genius. Someone emailed it to me and I was like, “Dude!” I know people who take this world very seriously, and they have to, because a lot of people spend a lot of energy on it, but that was fun. I thought it was hysterical. I even shoot up the Death Star! Now I’ve done “Star Wars.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.