“It was pretty surreal. I’d not done anything like that in my films before. But the weirdest part was when you have one of the exec producers leaning over your shoulder, going, “You can go full frontal, you know. This is television, you can do whatever you want! And do it! I urge you to do it.” So I was like, “Okay, well, if you— you’re the boss.” This particular exec took me to one side and said, “Look, I represent the pervert side of the audience, okay? Everybody else is the serious drama side—I represent the perv side of the audience, and I’m saying I want full frontal nudity in this scene.” So you go ahead and do it.”
—Director Neil Marshall on how he was prompted by one of the Executive Directors of “Game of Thrones” to include the random nude scene with Armeca in the “Blackwater” episode.
A behind the scenes look at how decisions are made to include male-gazey female nudity in the series.
Not everyone who might criticize some of Game of Thrones’s adaptive choices is a fundamentalist, David and Dan, terrified of veering from the book’s every word. Some of us just want the spirit to remain the same, and frankly, I’m not always fully convinced that you understand that the spirit of the series is more “we need to watch the long game that will kill us all; war and destruction are utterly miserable and, ultimately, not things to glorify” and less “bloodshed! violence! glory! snarky comments! hot naked women! dragons! tragic boy kings! what a wonderful story!”
Message to the Game of Thrones fandom
I’ve read more than a lot of posts and comments complaining with David Benoiff and D.B. Weiss lately, and I have something to say on the matter.
People, more specifically speaking, fans of the ASOIAF series, constantly complain about the way these men handle the show, certain characters and situations that were changed.
I could speak about how a book =/= series, and how the audiovisual language is so different from the language of literature. Instead, I will talk to you about these two men: Benoiff and Weiss. These men who live and breathe Game of Thrones every day.
As far as book adaptations go, I would say ASOIAF —> Game of Thrones is by far the best I’ve ever seen. Not only do we get ten episodes (A TEN HOUR MOVIE) worth of adaptation, but we get them with breathtaking, impossibly good production qualities.
Each episode of Game of Thrones has about an 8 million dollar budget. That’s a small movie budget. They have built amazing sets and scouted locations for shooting all over the world. They shoot at like, 4 different countries simultaneously. And do you know who made that possible?
Do you know who pitched the idea to HBO, and campaigned for it? Who believed in this show so much that they were willing to wait patiently until it was picked up? Those two guys everybody complains about.
They looked at thousands of auditions to find the best actors possible to play the characters we all love. They’ve sat for hours, for days on end thinking and talking about how best to adapt this story to the screen.
Do you not think they’ve considered every option? Do you think they make decisions lightly? With this huge fandom stepping on their toes and with the weight of HBO’s reputation on their backs? Do you think they don’t know what’s at stake? That they don’t love these characters as much as we do?
They love them so much they dedicate practically every minute of their lives and work to it.
They are the people George R.R. Martin trusted enough to actually TELL THEM THE ENDING.
They know who ends up in the Iron Throne. The creator of all these amazing characters TOLD THEM THE FUCKING ENDING.
So, honestly, what I want to say to the fandom es STFU and enjoy what you have been given, which is much, much more than many book fans get.
