‘Game Of Thrones’ Star Michelle Fairley Felt ‘Shattered’ After Red Wedding
Sunday’s Game of Thrones was easily the bloodiest and most shocking entry in the beloved HBO series yet, and that’s saying something considering the first season’s stunning and ignoble death of a beloved character.
The episode, titled “The Rains of Castamere,” has left a sour taste in the mouths of fans and an equally strong impression on the stars of the show. For her part, Thrones actress Michelle Fairley said that the event known as the “Red Wedding” depicted in the episode left her feeling “shattered.”
SPOILER WARNING – This is your only chance to turn back!
The “Red Wedding” episode saw the deaths of major characters including Robb Stark (Richard Madden), his wife Talisa (Oona Chaplin), their unborn child, most of the Stark bannermen, Robb’s direwolf, and long-suffering matriarch Catelyn Stark, played by Fairley.
While those with a lead on George R. R. Martin’s series of novels know that this is hardly the end of the Stark family’s quest for justice and/or vengeance, many who are fans of the show felt … well … a little hopeless after Sunday’s episode.
Many, including actress Michelle Fairley, who said that filming the episode left her “completely exhausted — I’ve never felt anything like it in my life.”
Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss said that they tried to contact Fairley several times after the episode wrapped, but to no avail.
“We tried to call Michelle afterwards. She wasn’t answering. A week later she wrote an email saying, ‘Sorry I haven’t been able to talk to anybody about the show for the past week because I’ve been so shattered.'”
As to why she couldn’t respond to her bosses right away, Fairley told EW: “It’s incredibly emotional. And Dan Weiss had left me a voice-mail and I did try to ring him back but by the end of the day I was a walking shell.”
Fairley has at least been somewhat jovial about it more recently, telling Vulture that she’s thinking of getting a “dead Game of Thrones characters” club together with former show star Sean Bean.
“He’s a lovely guy,” she said. “But we haven’t yet formed the dead Game of Thrones club. [Laughs] The Dead Characters Club. I think we might just have to! There will be a massive influx after Episode 9! The numbers will go up substantially.”
Did they ever.
BOOK SPOILERS – Go away unless you want a shred of hope back in your life!
But don’t lose too much hope, Game of Thrones fans and former-fans! I know it seems ridiculous to imagine, but despite the events of the Red Wedding, there’s plenty of great stuff ahead. Though Season 3 will end on a sour note, Season 4 will adapt the rest of A Storm of Swords, the novel in which the Red Wedding takes place.
The rest of the novel sees a lot of wrongs righted and a lot of justice served, albeit in unconventional, George R. R. Martin-y ways.
Are you a fan of Game of Thrones? What did you think of the Red Wedding episode?
