- Hi, I'm Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
I'm in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- Thank you so much for stopping by.
Fans will obviously recognize you as Jaime Lannister.
Even not fans, I feel like everyone on the planet
probably knows about Game of Thrones at this point.
And it's back. - Yes.
- It's finally back.
The premiere episode was last night
and there's a lot to unpack there
but first off, I wanted to ask you,
What were your thoughts when you first read the script
and saw that you were only in one scene of the premiere?
- Well, it's a great scene.
- That's true.
- This season, I mean it sounds like a lot of work
but it makes sense to refresh the whole, all the seasons
'cause there are so many throwbacks
to what happened earlier, of course.
That moment at the end of this episode
is back to the end of episode one of the show,
where we meet the first time.
- And so a little disturbing
that you use the word throwback,
- I know. (laughing)
- considering the last time you saw Bran,
you were shoving him out of a window.
- I know.
- What was it like to a, for you
to be with your costar again
that you haven't seen in 8 years in a scene
and then b, for Jaime, what is his thoughts
when he meets with Bran?
- Well, I don't think it's,
you know, I'm sure he went through all kinds of scenarios
of what would happen when he made it to Winterfell.
I think that's the last thing that he expected to see.
And, of course, once again,
it's kind of the same conundrum
as in episode one of the whole show,
if this kid, if this young man now,
tells anyone what he knows,
well, Jaime's in trouble.
- [Patrick] Right.
- But then again, he did say early on in the episode
that he was waiting for an old friend, so I mean.
- [Patrick] He knows things, that Bran.
- He knows things.
- There's a little bit of a power dynamic switch
between Bran and Jaime from the last time we saw them.
Like you just said, Bran has a little bit
of power over Jaime now.
Is that something we can expect
to see going forward in future episodes?
- Funny, it just struck me.
For a second, I though you said Brienne.
And I was like, No, Bran, yeah.
It's close. Is that a hidden meaning?
- [Patrick] There might be, yeah.
- Those names are so close, Brienne, Bran.
'Cause we usually just joke that Brienne is Bran.
- [Patrick] I feel like that was a huge hint
that you just gave to everybody.
- Brienne. Brienne and Bran.
Yes, well, sorry.
- No, no, it's okay.
For you and Bran, what can we expect going forward?
I know you can't get into spoiler territory
but what's that dynamic between the two characters?
(laughing)
So you're trained, how--
- No, but I mean I can't.
I mean I couldn't possibly though.
It's such a cliffhanger that for me
to give anything away would be suicide.
- But so the other question, then, is you have
to carry around, you have this huge responsibility
of now spoiling this show - Yeah.
- That you've had for, what,
over a year now, probably, right?
How hard is that for you to do, to not spoil it?
- It's not hard at all
because you just don't talk about season eight,
which makes for such a fascinating interview right now.
- Yeah, so yeah. Absolutely.
- No, but nobody really wants to know.
I mean, it's only six episodes.
- [Patrick] Right.
- I mean, wouldn't it be the,
I mean, if people who really love the show,
the idea of someone going, Yeah, this guy did it.
(Patrick laughing)
You know, that's the worst.
- Right. Well now we know that a guy did it.
Jaime, in a lot of ways, is a,
he's kind of a deconstruction of the noble knight archetype
that we see in a lot of fantasies.
How do you view Jaime?
Is he a hero?
What do you think of him?
- Well, no, I don't see him as a hero.
- [Patrick] Okay.
- But I see him as a guy who's incredibly dedicated
to his family and to the people he love
and I do believe that the line that he says
when he pushes Bran out of the window,
"The things I do for love",
is really the core of him.
He will do whatever it takes
to protect the people he loves.
And then in the first season,
it was Cersei and their children.
And well, who knows what happens in season eight
but I think that is really at the core
and also the reason he left Cersei
is also because he loves her.
- [Patrick] Right.
- And he loves the unborn child inside of her
and, of course, that's one thing.
And the other thing is he is a man of his word
even though he's known as this dishonorable man.
He actually always follows through,
except that once with the mad king.
- Yeah, just killing the king.
- Well, he did save-- - Yeah, he did. Absolutely.
- A million people but, you know, who's counting?
(laughing)
But he's not a hero because he, you know,
and I don't think that there are any,
well, that's not true.
Jon Snow is a bit of a hero.
- [Patrick] Sure, but they're few and far between.
- A few and far between, yeah.
- You mentioned Cersei and Jaime's love for Cersei.
She's done some horrible things in this show
and horrible things to Jaime as well
but he never doesn't love her. - No.
- Why is their bond so deep
and are you like that with Lena on set too?
Do you guys have a really good relationship?
- We have a great relationship.
She's amazing.
She's a wonderful actress but she's also so much fun.
She's so unlike Cersei that it's insane.
- [Patrick] That's good. I'm glad to hear that.
- Yeah, no, but and the same with Jack Gleeson,
who played Joffrey.
We just saw him at the premiere in New York
and he's just the funniest guy.
But anyway, so the dynamic of Jaime,
what was the question again?
(laughing)
- Why does Jaime love Cersei so much,
no matter what she does?
- She's such a great cook.
That's the thing.
(laughing)
She makes the best omelet and he's like,
I can't leave this woman.
I get up at breakfast every morning
'cause that's what we don't see.
All these things you don't see on the show
but she makes the best breakfast.
Like, how are you going to turn away from that?
- It's a game of scones.
- The food is not great, overall, in King's Landing
but Cersei just whips up that thing and you go, oh my god.
And the smoothie is to die for.
No, I think that it's one of those things.
It's said earlier on the season, some watch the season,
you don't get to choose whom you love.
And that's very true.
And then he is deeply dedicated to this woman
and he's, kind of, his whole life has been
about preserving her and her safety.
You know, he gave up the chance
of himself having a family to join the king's guard
just to be close to her so he could keep her safe.
And, let's face it, they haven't had,
it's not a normal upbringing they've had.
- No kidding.
- Tywin was not an easy father and they lost their mum,
their mother, early on when they were three, two.
And then, of course, being primed for this world
and, of course, she just being used as a bargaining tool
for the family, for the father saying,
Oh now, you've got to marry this guy,
who doesn't love her and she doesn't love him
but that's, it's difficult to comprehend
but the core of it is what I believe
is one of the, if not the only,
one of the only true love stories of Game of Thrones.
- Your character's one of the characters in the books
who has point of view chapter.
Once we got past the books in the show
and we've been past them for a while,
did it change the way you had to approach
playing the character?
- It did actually, yeah.
It changed my work,
the way I approached it because I like to plan.
I like to know what comes next.
I like to know, like, okay, I'm aiming for that
so I can go this way so there's a,
but Dan and David, they're not having that.
They're like, We're not telling you anything.
And it was driving me crazy
because, of course, you can't stop imagining
what will happen.
So at the end of season six when Jaime comes back
and sees Cersei crowning herself
and finds out that Tommen is dead,
that all the children are gone.
In my mind, he would have to act immediately.
So, of course, it's not something you want to do
but your mind just goes,
and that means I'm going to do that, I'm going to do that, okay.
So we get the scripts and, of course,
it's completely different
'cause they're great screenwriters.
So they said,
Okay, no, we understand you want that
but we're going to wait.
We're going to extend this whole thing
through the whole season.
So at the very end of the season, that's when he leaves.
And I got into all these arguments and fights
with the writers and they're like, Yeah, we hear you.
Yeah, but please you have to ba bee ba.
And they go, Yeah, we hear you and we respect you
but we don't care.
Okay? We don't, fuck, you're an actor.
Just say the word.
They didn't say it like that but that was kind of--
- That was the gist?
- That was the gist of it. Just do it--
- Yeah, or we'll cut off your other hand.
- And so the funny thing, we've gone
through these song-and-dance routines every season
since season four, where I come back
and I'm like, This doesn't make sense.
I don't know how to do this.
How do you do this?
And they go, Yeah, we hear you.
Just try it.
And then it turns out okay.
- Was this season, since it's the last season,
different than other seasons in terms of
how you got the script,
what information was presented to you?
When did you know what the actual end was?
- Well, we got, it was kind of the same the way
we got the scripts, like, one week out of the table read.
I'm going to say we got the scripts.
We didn't get the script, we got NAB,
told to download this synchronize
and then the scripts would come.
- [Patrick] Okay.
- And once you had finished the scripts,
they would disappear.
And it was insane.
It was driving me crazy.
Like, Well, you won't need to take notes.
Yeah, well, you can't.
Is it okay if I write them down?
Oh no, we don't want you to.
You can't do that.
But having said that,
'cause there was a lot of like, This is annoying,
you get used to it and for the first time in all the years,
we haven't had any major leaks, so.
- [Patrick] It worked.
- It kind of worked.
And then you get the scripts and you read it
and you just go, it was different
because this was like the end and it just felt,
I was really impressed when I finished it
because it's such a complex world.
There's so many story lines and there's so many ways
you could end this and just go online.
You'll find 10,000 different theories
on how the best way to end Game of Thrones
and none of these theories are what,
actually, you know, happens and what Dan and David
and, of course, and then Bryan Cogman, Dave Hill
came up with this.
I wrote the boys instantly.
I said, I don't think you could've done a better job.
And that doesn't mean that there's probably
going to be a lot of discussion with the end
because I think, deep down,
it's one of those for people who really love the show,
there is no ending that's a good ending.
- [Patrick] Right.
- Because it's the end - [Patrick] Yeah.
- And you don't want it to end.
It's like you read a great book and you get to the end
and then, you know, it's so good.
I don't want to finish the last 20 pages
because it's going to suck no matter what.
- [Patrick] You've got to savor those little bits.
- You want to savor those, yeah.
- I apologize if you hear this all the time
because I'm sure you do but one of the first things
you think when you see you
is that you have both hands, unlike Jaime.
Did you get better at all with your own left hand?
- Even George RR Martin, he did that in New York
at the premiere.
I was like, Come on, George.
I mean, you can do better than that.
(laughing)
No, every other person.
- Yeah, have you gotten better?
Are you more ambidextrous than you used to be?
- Yes. I guess I have, yeah.
- Yeah?
- I've done a lot of sword fighting and horseback riding
with the left, so yeah.
- We have a yo-yo over here if you want.
I'm kidding, we don't.
- I'm ready.
- One of the other characters that Jaime has a lot of,
and we brought her up earlier,
has a lot of chemistry with is Brienne.
- Yeah.
- And a lot of people, kind of, they shipped them,
to use the trendy word for it.
But now she has another courter in Tormund.
- In Tormund. - Yes.
- Is Jaime intimidated at all by Tormund?
- I don't think so.
- No? - No.
(laughing)
- Do you think Jaime could take Tormund?
- Oh, no, no, no.
Have you seen that?
He's a giant and you can't, clearly, he gets up every time.
No, I think the interesting thing,
with, and we'll see what happens in this season,
but up until this point, the thing with Brienne and Jaime
is that I don't think it's a conscious thing.
They're clearly, there's an attraction.
There's a deep respect and there's a love, I think,
between them but for them to act on that
is out of their reach.
But you'll have to see if that changes in season eight
but I think that's one of the endearing things
with that relationship is that it's so respectful
and there's been so many moments where there's been
tokens of real affection and love, you know.
He had a whole armor made for her.
He gave her the sword.
She tried to give it back and he says,
No, it's yours.
I give, you can keep my heart.
(laughing)
It's like, it's very romantic.
- Absolutely. - Yeah.
- What are cooler, direwolves or dragons?
- You can't really beat a dragon.
- [Patrick] Yeah, yeah.
I'm going to have to, you're right.
- Well, they're cuter than direwolves, right?
- [Patrick] Well, when they're smaller.
Maybe not so much when they get big, but.
- Well, that's true.
- What's next for you?
How do you close the book
on a character like Jaime Lannister?
- Oh, they say, that's in,
series wrap on Jaime Lannister and that's it.
Then you move on.
It's like any other job, really.
It's just stretched out over a long time.
- [Patrick] Right.
- No, since June, I've shot,
I did a documentary,
which was really cool.
I've traveled around Greenland
and had a little crew with me,
which was an absolute amazing experience,
something that I'd never done before.
And then I shot two films back home
and now I'm about to shoot a thing called The Silencing
with a Belgian director called Robin Pront,
an American movie.
- Do you think you'll always kind of be
in that Game of Thrones community as it goes forward?
'Cause the--
- You know, I hope and I bet we'll have
wonderful reunion parties, hopefully in Belfast,
'cause it's a great, great crowd of people
and just this, the premiere after party
was as epic as always.
So I really hope, I mean, it has to be every other year
is my, you know, it's hard on the body.
- [Patrick] Yeah, yeah, and the heart, I would imagine.
- And heart.
(laughing)
- All right, well thank you so much for joining us.
- Thank you.
- The final season of Game of Thrones
is airing right now on HBO.
- Yep.
- Nikolaj--
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.