Hi, John.
Hi.
OK so that was actually from the week before.
But the one that aired Sunday was--
man, oh man.
That was stressful to watch.
It was pretty stressful, right?
Yeah.
It was stressful for me too because I
hadn't seen any of it, really.
I saw it for the first time on Sunday.
And we had a screening at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood
and, you know, the reaction that the episode got
was just overwhelming.
Yeah, it was--
Yeah.
I think because when people are in the dark
and they're with a big, large group of people,
they feel kind of anonymous, so they
don't mind being super responsive, very, very vocal.
A lot of screaming?
Lots of screaming, lots of gasping.
I had my girlfriend next to me and I'd
managed to not tell her anything about the episode
and I still have the nail marks in my arm.
I think I've got some whole fingernails in my arm.
Well you probably can't tell her anything that you shoot, right?
Do you sometimes-- are you able to?
No.
Well she's a huge fan of the show and she wants--
Right.
So she doesn't want to know.
No, she wants to experience those moments
the way everybody does.
Now were you--
I don't think you should have survived.
Do you-- I mean,
Thank you.
I don't know how you survived that.
There was people dying all around you
and somehow you survived the entire thing.
Yeah.
I didn't think I was going to survive either.
Because you're always kind of looking
at the script for those episodes with one eye open.
You're so nervous.
And, you know, people say, "Oh, Sam can't die.
Sam's too important," or, "Sam's too beloved."
And you just think, "God, don't you watch the show?
Have you never seen the show before?
Kind of important and beloved doesn't matter to them.
No, not at all.
Nobody's sacred and nobody's safe in Game of Thrones.
And, you know, people say things like, "Oh, Game of Thrones
is one of those shows where all your favorite characters die."
And I'm like, "What does that say about me?
I'm still here.
I'm still around."
That's true.
But now do you stick around to the--
do you know how it ends?
Well I thought I knew how it was going to end.
And we definitely shot an ending.
I can tell you that.
But I read an interview with our [INAUDIBLE]
and it was not too long ago when they
said, "The actors think they know how it's going to end.
So, you know, actor's paranoia instantly kicked in
and you think, "What does that mean?"
So you don't know?
I don't know what I know is true.
Because he may be just saying that to make
you think you don't know but you may know.
I may ultimately know--
But you may not know.
But I'm not going to know that I know until I know that I know.
Right, exactly.
I'm with you.
People were complaining that-- because you
shot the whole thing at night, right?
Yeah.
55 nights.
I was going to say, how long did it take to shoot that.
Yeah.
55 nights in winter in Belfast.
So 11 whole weeks of working from 4:00 PM to 6:00 AM.
Oh my god.
So disorienting and such a weird experience.
I'm sure and how many extras were there?
There were hundreds.
Hundreds of extras.
Because if you know anything about the show,
you know that there was unsullied at Winterfell
and wildlings at Winterfell and you
can't get the same extras for both
because they look so different.
So yeah we had hundreds of extras around
and it was a very intense atmosphere.
And yeah, it's one of those things shooting at night
that if you do it for that long, you just lose all
touch with reality at all.
Yeah and it's freezing.
And, I mean, to choreograph the fight scenes, and with all
the horses there and everything, it's really amazing.
It's an amazing show.
Everyone's sad to see it end.
Yeah and the thing about kind of episodes like this is we've
always had set piece episodes in the past
where everything kind of comes together
and you get an explosive, usually a battle, episode.
But I think always in the past, they've
had to keep an eye on it because they think,
"We need to top this next year.
We need to better this next year."
But this is the first year that we
don't have to think about that.
We can just kind of pull out all the stops
and then it's for other people to try and top it.
So-- [INAUDIBLE]
Well it's such a great show.
And your character, I understand,
helped change a fan's life, right?
Yeah.
Tell me that story.
Yeah.
I was in London a few years ago, probably after season three.
So a good few years ago now.
And a guy came to me and he said, "I just
want to say that because of your character,
and your character's development, and the bravery
that your character's discovered in himself,
I found the courage within myself
to ask out the girl that I've been
in love with my entire life.
And I'd never told her.
I was worried about rejection."
And I asked her and she said that she'd
felt that same way about him.
And then they were together.
And I don't know if they're still together.
I hope they are.
I mean, please don't blame me if it went wrong.
It's not my fault. But that's the kind of thing where
you can talk about viewers, you can
talk about how many countries the show is watched in,
but when you realize what impact you're
making on lives like that, you feel
in a real privileged position.
Yeah.
And especially because that was your first audition.
You had never auditioned for anything.
No.
And you got this show.
Yeah.
It seems so long ago now.
I mean, it was nine years ago and I'd just
come out of drama training.
And yeah, I think as an actor, your first audition
is always a daunting--
Aw.
You're, like, 12 years old there.
Yeah.
Your first audition's always a daunting prospect,
no matter what it is.
So I wasn't even thinking about getting it.
I thought that it was this American HBO show
and I was just like, "I'm not even going
to think about getting it.
I just don't want to embarrass myself or embarrass my agent
that I'd just signed with."
I didn't want my agent to get an email saying, "Who the hell was
that guy?
Why waste our time with him?"
And then when it looked kind of more and more likely
that I was going to get it, that's when everything changed.
But no, it just seemed like life doesn't happen like that
and you don't get jobs like that.
And, you know, fingers crossed that people had the faith in me
that I could do it.
And that feels like a lifetime ago.
Yeah.
Well life does happen like that sometimes.
It's amazing what surprises are in store.
Congratulations.
The show is great.
You're great on the show.
Thank you.
And I'm really happy that you got the job
and you could affect other people's lives.
That's very kind.
Thank you so much.
That's great.
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9:00 on HBO.
We'll be right back.