“We never thought of Cersei as a particularly funny character until Lena read for the part. We had seen a number of excellent actresses, but everyone had interpreted the character as an emotionless ice queen. Lena took her in a different, stranger and more interesting direction. In her hands, Cersei embodies endless contradictions. The queen can seem both ruthless and fragile, often in the same scene. She can exhibit extreme cruelty but also utter devotion to her own children. And she’s damn funny, which is no surprise if you know Lena.”
—David Benioff about Lena Headey
“We're going to make viewers all over the world fall in love with these characters. And then we're going to kill them. The characters, I mean. Not the viewers. We haven't figured out how to do that yet.”
—David Benioff, Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones
#I’M PRETTY SURE THAT AFTER THE RED WEDDING YOU WILL HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THAT
Elementary thematic planning, my dear Mr. Benioff, is not a sneering matter
When I asked Benioff and Weiss if it was possible to infer any overall intentionality to the upcoming 10 episodes, they sneered. “Themes are for eighth-grade book reports,” Benioff told me. (x)
Themes are for stories, or, why David Benioff’s dismissive attitude of most aspects of storytelling aside from plot points is incredibly amateur and not helpful in adapting such a thematically-rich series.
