♪ (MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
Final season of Game of Thrones.
-(EXCLAIMS)
-(LAUGHS)
Crew please clear the set!
NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU:
Can actually use a whole episode
just in anticipation...
-SOPHIE TURNER: (SINGING)
 ♪ She's a sexy lady ♪
-Mm.
Brienne of Tarth!
Woo!
-(CHATTER)
-(DAVID NUTTER YELLS)
COSTER-WALDAU: Do we do
the lines or we just look up?
PETER DINKLAGE:
Do we do the lines, right?
-"Here we are?"
-DAVID NUTTER: Yes, sir.
DINKLAGE:
Okay. Why not, right?
NUTTER: Background!
TYRION LANNISTER:
Well, here we are.
Yes, here we are.
Because we were spending so much
of this season in Winterfell,
that meant greatly expanding
Winterfell.
 You can't just use the same
 three or four sets
 over and over again without it
 starting to look redundant.
Winterfell has grown from
what was, in season one and two,
 a courtyard,
 into a proper castle.
PAUL GHIRARDANI: When we read
 the outline for season eight,
it was clear that it was so big,
what was required of it,
 that we had to have
 a complete rebuild.
What was added for this season
was the north gate,
 and the battlements,
 and the north courtyard
 because of the...
 attack was going to come
 from the north.
Right, we are in, uh,
in the new courtyard
in Winterfell.
The old courtyard ended
where this wall was,
so it was tremendously small.
 We needed an expansion
 of the whole castle
 because we have refugees,
 we have an additional army
 that needed feeding.
DEBORAH RILEY: We took
 the old Winterfell model,
and I literally took a scalpel
and pulled that wall out
in foam core.
 And then it opened up
 the whole space.
 And seeing
all of the different activities
that took place in these castles
 is really important.
Almost the back-of-house
activities in the castle,
it was like, "Well, how were
these people fed?"
You know, "Where did the beer
come from?"
Just come through the north gate
in this area
where we have got
our soup kitchen.
GORDON FITZGERALD: And we made
 spoons and ladles and bowls
and things that you kind of
take for granted
but actually require
quite a lot of work.
And we have a brewery.
FITZGERALD: We have barrels
 that are practical
 and people can be drinking.
I do love research
and the history of food
and what was available
and what they would've eaten.
The other side,
we have our bakery.
FITZGERALD: We would have breads
 that were made fresh
and ones that were, uh, treated
so they wouldn't disintegrate
after a couple of days.
In working on a set
that looks good in every angle,
 that's what gives you
 the options, you know.
You could literally go
from one side of Winterfell
 upstairs, downstairs,
 into towers, out of towers,
 and create these long,
 continual shots.
SEAN SAVAGE:
 It was very, very exciting.
 I mean there's so many layers,
 levels,
which opens up a lot of chances
of moving the camera
through those
after our characters.
DAVID BENIOFF: So what Deb did
 and her team
 was to create these incredibly
 realistic environments.
If the actors
are in an environment
that seems real to them,
it's much easier to get
a good performance.
TURNER: Go inside,
 and you're completely
 transported.
You have to remind yourself
by like knocking on the walls,
and then you can hear
that it's fake.
(CHATTERING)
-CREW MEMBER: Scene marker.
-Mark it.
NUTTER: And action!
Turn. Go.
When I talked to the actors
concerning position
of where they all sit,
 episode one of the season,
 I made sure that Jon sat
 in the front middle.
 He was in a sense rallying
 the troops
 that we have to get behind
 Dany Targaryen.
When Jaime comes to Winterfell,
 she definitely took the role
 and took the queen's position.
DAENERYS TARGARYEN:
When I was a child,
my brother would tell me
a bedtime story
about the man
who murdered our father.
It's an absolute trial,
but it's fueled
by this fact
that no one wants her there.
It's fueled by
her needing to say,
"This is me in the boardroom,
this is me at work.
And I'ma show you how I work."
I promised to fight
for the living.
I intend to keep that promise.
CHARLIE WATSON: David Nutter,
 he has the most enormous
 respect for actors.
I mean, as do I.
I couldn't possibly do that.
Sitting in front of this camera
is difficult enough.
 Once we get on set,
 we will have
 a director's rehearsal
with the actors before the scene
 and then we go for it.
(CHATTERING)
I know Ser Jaime.
He is a man of honor.
For Brienne, I think
it's in some ways
the most complicated
feeling of all
 because she's feeling things
 she can't really process.
It goes all the way back
to the beginning
of their relationship
when he kind of...
 jumped in the line of fire
 for her.
Without him, my lady,
you would not be alive.
GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: Brienne's
 a very naturally shy person,
 and she stands in front
 of that room
and she puts herself on the line
and it's almost...
like a declaration of love.
And that means a lot to Sansa
because she believes in Brienne.
 It's like
 if Brienne vouches for him,
then that's good enough for her.
SANSA STARK:
I trust you with my life.
If you trust him with yours,
we should let him stay.
What does the Warden
of the North say about it?
KIT HARINGTON: That's
 the first scene we see him...
after he's heard all
the information from Sam.
JON SNOW:
We need all the men we can get.
So I think even the fact
that Jaime Lannister is here,
 he's sort of just
 not really in the room.
NUTTER:
 The moment that Jon found out,
he started to cool off with her.
That was really
the kind of thing which--
he was avoiding her.
Cut, print.
(CHATTERING)
RILEY:  In David Nutter's words,
 he was--
he was getting Winterfell
ready for battle.
And by the time Miguel
would arrive in episode three,
the battle was beginning.
 And the thing that
 was really important to us
 was what steps would
the residents of Winterfell take
 in order to protect themselves
 against the Army of the Dead.
 So they would do as much
as they could with dragonglass.
 We had the caltrops
 that were made.
We also put shards
of dragonglass
 on top of the battlements,
 and the dragonglass logs.
I had pre-engineered
how to make the dragonglass.
 So, chunks of resin,
 and then, we'd knap it,
 shape it, grind it.
 Then we just,
 we mold that and create
 hundreds of all types.
From a very prop sort of sense,
we had to make
big piles of dragonglass
that were movable.
 Background weapons,
 spears, knives, daggers.
TOMMY DUNNE:
 Then using the forge work,
 how to make a sword,
 how to make an axe,
 how to make a spear.
So, incorporating all of
those assets with Gendry.
(MEN SHOUTING)
JOE DEMPSIE: The whole thing's
 fully working, you know.
The furnaces work.
The forges are all, you know,
fully operational.
And so, as an actor
who's trying to look like
he knows what he's doing,
that's a challenging hoax.
(ALL CHATTERING)
NUTTER:
 Gendry's, in a sense--
he's leading the guys
in the fortress,
he understands
all about dragonglass
and understands
how to turn it into weapons.
SAM CONWAY: It had to be
 molten dragonglass
 poured by an actor
 into a mold,
 and so obviously we had to
play around with a material
that was completely safe,
 pretty cool, but also
 appear to be molten glass.
NUTTER: Here we go. Ready?
And...
 Arya goes to the forge,
and in a sense,
"Oh, Gendry's here."
And he's lookin' good.
 Gendry got a chance
 to kind of understand
 who the new Arya was as well,
 so there's a wonderful
 kind of a...
flirtation that went on
that was kind of interesting.
GENDRY: You're going to be safer
down in the crypt, you know.
-(BACKSTAGE CHATTER)
-Are you going to be down
in the crypt?
She basically, she proves to him
in a display of her prowess,
 she takes about four or five
 of these dragonstone knives
 and kind of throws them
 at the post
 and kind of, you know, hits
 this post five times in a row,
 and he's like, "Holy shit.
 She's got some abilities."
ARYA STARK:
I enjoy new experiences.
I look forward
to seeing this one.
♪ (MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
RILEY:
Well, the library in Winterfell
 was something that I was
 very excited about designing,
and it is a beautiful space.
We wanted to make it look
slightly different from
 all the libraries
 that we've done before.
You know, they're not
great readers in Winterfell.
 We added little details,
 uh, like, you know,
 these direwolf heads.
The wolf heads
in the Winterfell library
were just a bonus, really.
Um, we built these
beautiful hammerbeams,
 and it was Hauke's idea
 to put the wolf heads
 on the end
 of those hammerbeams, so...
Darren, our sculptor, sculpted
those little wolf heads.
DARREN FITZSIMONS:
 We took the sigil
and just tried to develop it
into a 3D world.
 And then we made
 a small model in clay
 to look like a carved wood
'cause it was gonna go at
the end of a piece of timber.
If the audience picks up
on them, um, that's fantastic.
If they don't, then...
they enrich the set
in another way.
-NUTTER: Okay, are you ready?
-Yeah. Yeah.
NUTTER: And... action.
Lady Sansa, I was hoping
we could have a word.
Alone.
Sorry. Do that again.
Think we might have a word?
(LAUGHS)
It was actually quite bizarre
because I only see
Emilia onscreen,
 and it's, like,
 kind of a fan moment.
I mean, I know her in real life,
but as Daenerys,
I only see her on screen.
 It was really, really fun
 to work with her.
I thought you and I were on
the verge of agreement before.
EMILIA CLARKE:
It was a lioness versus lioness.
 Verbally, you've got
 this sparring match happening.
DAENERYS: He never
should've trusted Cersei.
SANSA: You never
should have, either.
Like, "Oh, that slap hurt!
I'ma take it!
Mm... Not gonna slap you back!"
SANSA: Families are complicated.
Ours certainly have been.
BENIOFF: You're driving it,
 and you have to sit first,
but as you're sitting,
you could indicate like...
CLARKE: Yeah.
She comes to Sansa, yeah,
with a bit of an olive branch,
trying to find a way
inside that kind of
 cool exterior
 that Sansa presents.
I'm here
because I love your brother.
But she's just forgetting
the critical matter, which is
 Sansa thinks of the North
 in every way
 that Dany thinks of Westeros.
The North is hers.
It's the Starks'. It's theirs.
SANSA: It was taken from us,
and we took it back.
We said we'd never bow
to anyone else again.
What about the North?
NUTTER: And... cut.
I just fancy your brother loads.
I think he's really,
really sexy.
CREWMAN: And we are cutting.
We're cutting.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
ROBBIE BOAKE: The way we
had to light the night courtyard
 meant we had to dig trenches
 through a very thick
 World War II concrete lane
 for the megawatt power
 that we had to pipe in
 from the gennies.
So, it's a bit more like
preparing for Glastonbury
than it was for-- preparing
for a short-stay location.
THE HOUND: Oh, for fucks sake.
 This will be a bloody wedding.
And we'll cut, guys.
We'll cut.
WATSON:
 We had one night shooting.
But we had three principal cast
up there,
 three cameras,
 background, our crew,
 and we had every kind
 of weather.
 We had clear skies,
 we had horizontal rain,
 horizontal sleet,
 big fluffy snowflakes.
And so we had to cover ourselves
 in every kind of weather.
 It's very cool when you
 actually look at it and go,
"Oh, that looks a lot better
than we thought it was,
considering it was
pissing with rain."
 And you realize
 you got away with it.
THE HOUND: Where are you going?
I'm not spending my final hours
with you two
miserable old shits.
BENIOFF: For us, what was
 interesting about this episode
was always that it's
our last night together.
What people do when they know
they have one...
night left on Earth
 tells you a lot about
 who people really are.
JAIME LANNISTER: I remember
the first time we came here.
You were a golden lion,
I was a drunken whoremonger.
It was all so simple.
This sequence
that I love so much
was the sequence
around the fireplace.
Starts off with something simple
 as Tyrion and Jaime
 having a moment together
 as brothers.
JAIME: My lady.
BRIENNE: Oh, we didn't mean
to interrupt.
We were just looking
for somewhere warm.
TYRION: To contemplate
your imminent death?
You've come to the right place.
♪ (THUMPING MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
COSTER-WALDAU:
 We have all invested
 so many years
 in these characters,
that, yes, we can actually
use a whole episode
 just in anticipation
 of what's gonna happen.
(DRINK TRICKLES)
LIAM CUNNINGHAM:  And there
 was a good gang in the room,
 we've got Peter and Daniel,
 myself, Brienne there,
and that wonderful atmosphere
that the guys have created.
DAVOS SEAWORTH:
Figured that I could wait to die
freezing my balls off out there,
or wait to die
nice and warm in here.
KRISTOFER HIVJU:  For Tormund,
the best thing to do is to drink
 and to try to enjoy life.
(LAUGHTER IN BACKGROUND)
HIVJU:  And of course,
 life is love,
 and love is Brienne.
So he's just hanging around
trying show her...
why he's the best guy ever.
TORMUND GIANTSBANE:
They call me Giantsbane.
Want to know why?
I've now watched it
probably 300 times,
but I'd still always laugh
when Tormund starts telling
his backstory. (CHUCKLES)
That's how I got so strong.
Giant's milk.
BENIOFF: Partly in the way
 that Kristof portrays Tormund,
 and partly in the reactions
 of the other characters
 listening to him,
 part just in the way
 that Tormund chugs
 the goat's milk there.
 It's really pretty incredible.
And he was really chugging milk.
(TORMUND BURPS)
Maybe I will have that drink.
(GRUNTS)
NUTTER: Cut, print.
(LAUGHS HYSTERICALLY)
But it does not impress
Brienne, I think,
um, but you know,
he does his best. (CHUCKLES)
So your line,
"You're not a knight?"
-HIVJU: Okay.
-Tormund.
-HIVJU: You're not a knight?
-Yeah, we'll pick it up there.
Put "fuck tradition"
a little closer together.
Tighter. And... action.
You're not a knight?
-Women can't be knights.
-Why not?
-Tradition.
-Fuck tradition.
WEISS: There's a scene
 Bryan Cogman wrote
in which Jaime decides
to knight Brienne
that we-- we always just loved,
we loved enough that we made it
the title of the episode.
I don't care about that,
and I will continue
to live my life
in the best way possible,
and you will probably
never acknowledge it,
but that's not what my life
is about.
I'm no king, but if I were,
I'd knight you ten times over.
He may not have been meaning,
"I'll make you
a knight ten times over,
but, uh, it was wonderful
how he kind of said the line.
JAIME: You don't need a king.
He goes, "Well, hang on
a second. I can do this."
Any knight
can make another knight.
There are no rules against it,
it's just weird tradition.
I'll prove it.
WEISS:
 It's a kind of validation,
 a general kind of validation
 she's wanted her whole life.
Kneel.
WEISS: One of my favorite
 little moments there
is the look that Pod gives her
when she tries to pretend
to everybody
 like she doesn't want
 to be a knight
 when Pod knows that
 that's what she wants
more than any single other thing
 in the world.
You want to be a knight or not?
Kneel.
And even though she denies it,
Brienne has been more knightly
than any of the knights
I think we've seen.
DANIEL PORTMAN: And the fact
 that she hadn't been
just because of her gender
is totally unfair.
CHRISTIE:
As humans like to feel accepted,
 and the idea of those sorts
 of stereotypes
being pulled apart
is incredibly important.
In the name of the warrior,
I charge you to be brave.
NUTTER:
 When we're on his coverage,
 he kind of zoned out
 for a moment,
and what I mean by that,
he was so into the character,
he wasn't self-editing
or he wasn't aware of what did,
and he goes,
"I hope that was good
 because I don't know
 what happened."
 Then, this is when I know
 an actor's got it.
JAIME: Arise, Brienne of Tarth.
A knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Living your life exclusively
for the wellbeing of others,
 in service of an idea
 greater than yourself,
 I am delighted that Brienne
 is recognized for that.
(APPLAUSE)
TYRION:
Ser Brienne of Tarth.
Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
She deserved it.
She really deserved it.
A bit of a problem that it came
from Jaime, though,
but, uh, we'll see. (CHUCKLES)
TYRION: How about a song? Hmm?
One of you must know one.
I thought, "Could someone sing?
Would Tormund sing?"
 And then Dave Hill
 mentioned to me
 that Daniel Portman
 has a great voice.
We haven't had an original
in a while,
so, um, this felt like
the place for it,
and Daniel felt like the singer.
PORTMAN:
 Yeah, I was just sort of--
I was drinking a lot
of herbal teas and honey
and things like that
to make sure--
'cause it's very high.
I don't usually sing
as high as that.
The person we hadn't seen
for a few beats was Pod,
so on Tyrion's closeup,
profile closeup,
 Pod enters frame
 as the camera finds him,
and he starts to sing.
-Scene marker.
-NUTTER: Mark it.
PODRICK PAYNE: (SINGING)
 ♪ High in the halls ♪
 ♪ Of the kings who are gone ♪
 ♪ Jenny would dance
 With her ghosts ♪
It was cool 'cause I wanted
to shoot it in continuous shots,
 it was great 'cause
 he kept in tune and rhythm
 -for a long time.
 -♪ The ones she had lost ♪
 ♪ And the ones she had found ♪
BRYAN COGMAN: What I really
 wanted that episode to be
was a love letter
to the characters
because I, um,
I love them so much.
 Most of the scenes
 in that episode,
 it's really these characters
 in a room
 sharing their humanity.
 ♪ The ones who'd been gone
 For so very long ♪
 ♪ She couldn't remember
 Their names ♪
I pledged to fight
for the North, and I will fight.
 ♪ They spun her around
 On the damp old stones ♪
 -♪ Spun away...
-SAMWELL TARLY: Your father...
taught me how to do
what's right.
This is right.
PODRICK: ♪ And she never wanted
 To leave ♪
 ♪ Never wanted to leave ♪
 ♪ Never wanted to leave ♪
 ♪ Never wanted to leave ♪
 -♪ Never wanted to leave ♪
-JON: My name...
-My real name...
 -♪ Never wanted to leave ♪
...is Aegon Targaryen.
(DISTANT HORN BLARES)
-SOLDIER: Form up!
-(HORN CONTINUES)
Steel yourselves, men!
(SHOUTS CONTINUE DISTANTLY)
