It’s hard to think of the amazing Game of Thrones cast as anything other than a bunch of sword-yielding, fire-touching, butt-kicking, braid-wearing bosses. Playing iconic characters like Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister, Tyrion Lannister and of course, Hodor, this cast of talented actors and actresses has totally brought the story to life for us, and we’re forever in their debt. Whatever the past and future hold, to us, they will always be legends! But as hard as it is to believe, the talents behind these famous characters—stars like Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey and Kit Harington, among others—are actually regular humans like the rest of us. Like all regular humans, they each have their share of quirky secrets you probably had no idea about. From hidden sicknesses and insane diet regimes to nighttime hobbies, real-life rivalries and colorful pasts, here are 15 secrets about the real men and women of Westeros
15 Emilia Clarke Secretly Suffered A Brain Aneurysm
Daenerys Targaryen the Mother of Dragons (and about ten million other things) is played by Emilia Clarke. We know that Emilia is quite different to Dany in real life—as well as other things, her hair is a lot darker and shorter, and she’s a lot less intense. But one thing she does have in common with the Khaleesi is the fact that they have both been through a few very hard times. In 2013, Emilia was taken to hospital after she suffered a brain aneurysm. Though this was such a big deal, neither Emilia nor HBO made an official statement about it. This took place just after the third season, and Emilia had recovered enough to start filming Season 4 when it was time. So we have no official statements, but an inside source did say this to the National Enquirer: “No one really knows what caused the aneurysm. It seems like a fluke thing.”
14 Peter Vaughn Was Really Blind
Peter Vaughn played Maester Aemon Targaryen in the show. The great uncle of Daenerys, Aemon was thought to be the last Targaryen in Westeros for a long time (before we knew that Jon is secretly half-Targaryen). He made waves with his natural death, which is a really big deal in a show where basically everyone gets brutally slaughtered at some point. And the Maester has a place in our heart for being a gentle personality amongst a world of pretty nasty people, and for being an idol to Sam and subconsciously encouraging him to follow his dream of becoming a Maester too one day. Bless! Part of Aemon’s gentle and vulnerable nature came down to the fact that he was blind, and in real life, so was Peter Vaughn. He became partially blind in his later years, and like his character, passed away of natural causes at the age of 93.
13 The Mountain Eats A Lot
Okay, if you’ve seen the Mountain, you probably could have guessed that he eats a lot. A couple of different actors have played the role of the savage, undefeatable, and now zombie Ser Gregor Clegane, but the latest actor to take on the huge (pun intended) task of playing Cersei’s body guard is Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson. Those muscles aren’t just a special effects trick—Hafthór actually has the title of the third-strongest man in the whole world. So how does he stay strong? For starters, he never goes more than two hours without eating (same, man, same). Each day he consumes up to 36 eggs, two pounds of beef, and around three pounds of potatoes. He also eats plenty of oats, fruits, chicken, nuts, avocados, peanut butter, Rice Krispy treats, salmon, and of course, spinach. At 6’9”, Hafthór is about as close to a real Icelandic giant as we’re ever going to see!
12 Lena Headey Is A Plot Spoiler
By plot spoiler, we mean that Lena Headey totally spoils the much anticipated plot of the show on her Instagram page. Okay, she doesn’t blatantly state what will happen, since that would probably get her fired from the show even though she’s the best Cersei Lannister we’re ever going to get. But she does drop little hints, which are basically blunt spoilers to hardcore fans of the show. Example? Before the infamous Mountain and the Viper episode aired, Lena posted a snap of herself pretending to gauge out the eyeballs of Pedro Pascal, who at the time starred as Prince Oberyn. As we all know, Oberyn did indeed get his eyes gauged and his skull squeezed on-screen, but it wasn’t as much of a surprise if you’d seen Lena’s Instagram. That isn’t the only “hint” she’s dropped on social media, either. Pretty sneaky! So maybe she’s more like Cersei than we all think?
11 Kristian Nairn DJs
Yes, you read that correctly. Kristian Nairn is actually a professional disk jockey. His music is inspired by GoT, and he travels all around the world with his appropriately titled Rave of Thrones set. What’s so unbelievable about this? There are maybe a few characters we can envision as DJs. Euron Greyjoy, perhaps. But Hodor? No way! You’d be more likely to catch Tywin Lannister at a rave than pure-hearted Hodor, who gave his life to hold a door. We know that the actors are not their characters, but we really needed to see visual evidence to believe this one! But it is completely true, and fans get messy to the tracks Kristian spins. When asked about his parallel career, he explained what he loves most about it: “…if you’re on a DJ set, you get a reaction right in the front… either they hate it or they like it. I like the live reaction.”
10 Iwan Rheon Could Have Been A Different Snow
Iwan Rheon is no longer part of the show, but we doubt anybody’s forgotten him. His character Ramsay Snow (later Bolton) was so sadistic that he made Joffrey Baratheon seem like an altruistic sort of fellow! His icy-pale skin and clear-blue eyes now give us shivers, but when you watch the Welsh actor just being himself and, you know, not maiming people and flaying them alive, he’s actually pretty attractive. A hot actor who can make himself seem despicable is definitely a talent! Though Iwan will now forever be associated with Ramsay, he actually auditioned for the role of another illegitimate child on the show. That’s right—Iwan could have been Jon Snow! He actually got down to the last two in the audition process before losing to Kit Harington. Imagine Ramsay as Jon…Or better yet, imagine Jon as Ramsay, since Kit would have had to audition for another character if he’d lost. Too weird!
9 Lena Headey And Jerome Flynn Loathe Each Other
Seeing as there’s a gazillion characters to keep track of on GoT, you probably haven’t followed which characters have met and which haven’t. And if two characters have never crossed paths, you would just assume that it’s because each character journey is so diverse that some of them have little to do with each other. However, that isn’t the case with Cersei Lannister and Bronn. You would have thought these two would have shared at least one scene, with Bronn being so close to Cersei’s brothers, Jaime and Tyrion, and being in the same city as her for most of the time. But in actual fact, Lena Headey and Jerome Flynn who play these Team Lannister characters, totally despise each other IRL. The word is that they actually used to date, but ended things on such a bitter note that they can’t even share a “hello” on set all these years later.
8 Emilia Clarke Won Her Role By Dancing
There are many qualities that the Mother of Dragons has to encompass. She has to be commanding, confident, genuine, and ruthless when the time calls for it. Also, she has to look good in all her Dothraki-inspired outfits and with her hair in braids that would make the rest of us look ridiculous. Emilia Clarke ticks all those boxes, but at her audition, she showed the producers another talent of hers. One that we’re yet to see Daenerys display on screen! Of course she acted out the scenes she was supposed to in front of show runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, but once that was over, she asked if there was anything else she could do to show off her skills. It was actually David who requested a dance from Emilia, and she responded by doing a combo of funky chicken and robot moves. She got a lot of laughs, and later, the role of Daenerys.
7 The Red Woman Could Have Been A Lion
Lady Melisandre, not-so-affectionately referred to by Ser Davos as the Red Woman, isn’t exactly an innocent character. Yes, we all love her and owe our lives to her for bringing Jon Snow back from the dead, but she has done some nasty things in the past, including burning innocent children at the stake. So the fact that Carice Van Houten was originally asked to audition for the role of Cersei Lannister isn’t actually that surprising, since we know she can do the bad guy (or girl) perfectly. Because Carice is such a magnificent actress, she probably would have won that role—the only reason she didn’t do the audition is because she was actually busy shooting something else at the time. We think she would have made a great Cersei, although we’re more than happy with the one we have now! And we can’t imagine anybody else playing Melisandre, so it was all meant to be.
6 Kit Harington Used A Fake Butt
There’s more than enough female nudity in GoT to keep everybody completely occupied, but there’s significantly less male nudity. Sure, we’ve seen a few manly bits and pieces throughout the seasons, however, we can count them on one hand. And one of the things we’ve seen that particularly caught our attention was Jon Snow’s bare bottom when he had some steamy time with Ygritte in the cave, north of the Wall. Jon Snow’s probably one of the most attractive male characters on the show (find us someone who disagrees), so this was a pretty exciting moment for a lot of viewers. But as it turns out, we were totally played because that wasn’t even Kit’s real backside. It was a real butt, not a prosthetic alternative, but it didn’t belong to Kit. In reality, it belonged to a crew member who had the right build and color to play Jon Snow’s behind.
5 Peter Dinklage Stands Up For Little People
Everybody likes Tyrion Lannister. In the show, he stands up against anything he doesn’t believe is right, including when he sees his fellow little people being treated badly. In real life, Peter Dinklage himself also takes a stand for little people. Standing 4’5” tall, Peter was born with a condition that affected the growth of his limbs known as achondroplasia, and doesn’t let it get in the way of him living his life. He also encourages other little people to follow their dreams and demand the respect they deserve. Famously, Peter used his platform on the Emmy stage to bring up Martin Henderson, a little person who was injured after a drunk man had played something called “dwarf tossing” with him. “It is nice to know my message is getting out to people that it is not acceptable to throw dwarves around,” said Peter later on, after people had taken note of his words.
4 A Few Cast Members Really Know Nothing
There’s one person who knows nothing in Westeros, and that’s Jon Snow. But as it turns out, there have been times in actor Kit Harington’s life when you could accuse him of the same thing. For example, Kit Harington wasn’t really born Kit Harington; his real name is Christopher. But he didn’t even know this until he was 11 years old. There are a few things children don’t find out until they’re older, but their own name is not usually one of them! Another cast member who is missing significant info about her own life is Gwendoline Christie, who plays our girl Brienne of Tarth. To this day, Gwendoline doesn’t know what her birthday is. Thanks to birthdays not being a big deal in her family, her mom never kept track of the date she was born, and as a result, Gwendoline doesn’t know how old she really is. Her paperwork must be fun to fill out!
3 There Are A Lot Of Harry Potter Connections
When you think about Game of Thrones and the Harry Potter series, they’re kind of different. For starters, Harry Potter is a lot more child-friendly, and the central message of the story is that good will overcome evil. But in GoT, the opposite happens more often than not! Even though they’re not too similar, these two pop culture phenomena do share something in common, and that’s their cast members. One star who’s appeared in both is Ciarán Hinds, who played Aberforth Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II and Mance Rayder in GoT. Julian Glover, who played Grand Maester Pycelle in GoT didn’t exactly appear in Harry Potter, but his voice did: he voiced the gigantic spider Aragog in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. And who could forget the wildling Osha? Natalia Tena, who played our fave wildling, also played Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter series.
2 Emilia Clarke Was Bullied
Emilia Clarke is the ultimate example of how bullying can affect absolutely anyone—it has nothing to do with the victim, and everything to do with the bully. When she was a child, it was her eyebrows that caused Emilia the most trouble in the schoolyard. Although we love them today, her eyebrows attracted attention for being fully grown, since her mom wouldn’t allow her to wax them. “My mom had rules when I was growing up: Don't do drugs, don't have s*x, and don't touch your eyebrows,” she explained in an interview with Allure. “So I got bullied as a kid for having ridiculous eyebrows. She said, 'You'll be thankful when you're older,' and I am. My mom used to tell me to brush them with Vaseline when I went to bed." If only those kids knew that the girl who didn’t wax her brows was going to grow up to be a cultural icon!
1 Sibel Kekilli Has Done A Lot Of Films
There’s no denying that Sibel Kekilli is talented. Her role as Shae in the series was remarkable, and we’re still sad that Shae and Tyrion couldn’t end up together (despite her sleeping with his dad and lying to get him killed). Before she landed the role of the famous lady of the night, the Turkish-born actress actually worked as a professional adult film star. Her stage name was Dilara, and she was quite successful in the world of adult films. However, she left all that behind her and turned to the other kind of acting after moving to Germany. Though she is no longer part of the show, she is continuing to build her acting career, and currently stars on a German TV show called Tatort, playing a character called Sarah Brandt. She also has a few upcoming film projects in the works and it looks like her days as an adult film star are truly behind her!
Sources: www.telegraph.co.uk, www.buzzfeed.com
