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- With social media, you can get sort of instant reviews
of your projects, I think, once they go out to the world.
The Arya Stark sex scene was sort of a big discussion
once that episode aired.
Are you surprised when a moment like that
becomes a social media moment?
- Well it's interesting.
I've kind of chosen television because of the quality
of material that I'm offered, being a writer.
So I've turned a lot of features down.
And, the one thing you don't get is
you don't get the box office.
You don't get the reviews all the time.
But when I did "The Rains of Castamere" episode,
the Red Wedding,
that was an episode that--
- [Man] Wow.
- [Rebecca] Great episode.
- Once I finished it, people had compiled together
their reactions to the end of the episode.
And it's quite something to see that
what I was doing was affecting people in that respect.
People jumping up and down on their couches,
screaming and yelling, and crying
and it was really quite powerful,
and something that I felt like
"Whew, I guess I did okay."
You know, when you get things like the coffee cup
on the table or something, that's just a mistake.
She ordered an herbal tea, and she got coffee.
So I guess there was the mistake there.
- What did you feel when you saw that people
spotted that coffee cup in that episode?
What was it like for you when you saw that become a meme?
- Well, I don't know.
I think the show is so damn perfect in many respects
that people love to find the blemishes.
It's just a little non-sequitur,
that doesn't really mean or matter anything at all.
- It's a good sign
that people went through frame by frame--
- Yes, absolutely. - To find that coffee cup.
- Absolutely, yes it is.
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- So are you told the story arcs for everyone
through the entire season even if you're not directing?
- Some of the stuff I wouldn't want to know,
'cause I think it made it much more clear for me
to tell a story from that perspective of the character
at the time it happened.
I didn't want to read what happened to Jon Snow
in season six.
So I never knew how that ended so,
I was at a fundraiser with President Obama
at Chuck Lorre's house one day.
And they were all excited that I was there,
because that was when they were showing
the last two episodes of season five.
And you take the picture with the president,
he takes my hands, shakes my hand, and says,
"You didn't kill Jon Snow, did you?"
(group laughing)
- Oh my God.
- And I said, "Yes sir, he's deader than dead."
(group laughing)
"You kill all my favorite characters."
So it was situation in which, I didn't lie to him
but, uh, next season people came back
and said that I'd lied to the president.
(group laughing)
(mumbles) the IRS to come get me,
but fortunately they didn't.
This year on "Game of Thrones",
and I've had this before with the shows,
people's death's their last scene.
And to me that's such an important thing
is making sure they feel comfortable with it.
And I would always go to them and let them know,
this is the one, this is the hangover,
this is the whatever we're doing,
and I'll keep doing it until you feel comfortable.
'Cause it's too important.
'Cause they have to walk away feeling
that they contributed to that.
I heard a story once that acting is standing
in front of a crowd naked and turning around very slowly.
(laughing)
And it really is that.
And it's a situation, if they fall you have to be there
to catch them.
You know, cause so much of the time, anymore,
there's so many monitors and so many layers
between actors and directors and so forth
and I always like to get up there as close as possible,
so they know that, with everything that's going on,
they're still the center.
'Cause without them they're nothing.
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- David, how about for you?
Did you have to fight for anything you really needed
to make your episodes of the season?
- Well for "Game of Thrones",
as far as fighting is concerned,
it's been a great experience not to have to do that.
Which is fun.
And also, too, I like limitations, sometimes.
'Cause limitations helps me build a world.
'Cause if we have no limitations,
then you got nothing to grab onto.
I like to have limitations.
And to me, they'll say,
"You can do this, this, and this."
And then I say,
"Okay how do I play in that sandbox?"
I can figure out how to do that in that way.
I may need to change something or adjust here,
or spend a little more money here,
spend more time here.
This seems more important, this isn't as important.
I can do this in less shots, or whatever that may be.
So you're always balancing that,
no matter what you're doing.
- What is a movie or a TV show
that you feel like any aspiring director should see?
- I would say "The X-Files".
- [Rebecca] Mm hmm.
- Because it was really the first show of its kind
that dealt with extreme possibilities out there
that people didn't really realize was possible.
And it's setting in a real world tone,
which I thought was really well done.
And it was just the look of the show
and the tone of the show
was something that I thought was a real pioneer.
- Jean-Marc?
- TV show, I would say "Soprano",
and Mister here directed.
- I was about to say that.
- "The Sopranos". - It was definitive.
- How to create the best character driven,
emotional driven TV series
where you get in and you're sucked into it,
and you love the characters
and you're not supposed to love them.
Their ethic, they kill people!
- But he loves his family.
And he loves his people that care for him.
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