Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: GoT actors are ‘upset’ about the criticism of the last season

I think most Game of Thrones fans – fans of the TV series – can say openly that the last season was utter trash. The storylines were bad, but how we got there was even worse. The lack of character development, particularly for the female characters, was awful. Instead of showing us Daenerys’ descent into madness, they just showed her looking depressed or upset a few times, then had Tyrion and Varys and even Jon mansplain how she was unhinged and hysterical. We were supposed to be devastated by the burning of Kings Landing – I thought it was a horrifying yet logical political move to ensure that no one f–ked with her. I could go on and on about what was wrong, honestly, and I still haven’t fully processed Jon’s actions, his assassination of Dany, his imprisonment and his banishment. It made no sense.

But here’s the thing: I don’t blame the ACTORS for that sh-t. I blame David Benioff and Dan Weiss, I blame producers who didn’t stop them from ruining the final acts, and I blame HBO too. But mostly Weiss and Benioff. Still, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau says that the now-former castmates are stressed out about all of the criticism:

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has revealed that some of the Game Of Thrones cast were left ‘upset’ by the backlash the final season received. The Danish actor, 48 – who played Jaime Lannister on the popular HBO fantasy series – confessed that a series of ‘vicious’ comments over the ending of the eighth and final series left certain cast members devastated. Speaking at the Game of Thrones convention in Nashville, Nikolaj was candid about the reaction to the show’s finale.

He revealed: ‘Every season has been intense in terms of the attention and discussion, but it was extraordinarily intense for a final season. And we have this WhatsApp group, the actors, and I saw some people getting a little upset because some of the stuff is vicious, and if you make the mistake of start reading all that sh-t, because if you guys get really angry about something – I’m sure you did, some of you – so you write to each other and go, ‘F***ing a**holes. This is so not what would happen! They ruined, they butchered George’s (R.R. Martin’s) world!’ It’s just fun for you, but of course some got a little upset.’

He explained further: ‘There was that weird feeling of, “What the hell? We worked so hard.” I’m not asking anyone to feel sorry, by the way. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying how it was to get through that whole thing.’

However, Nikolaj looked on the positive side of the situation by declaring he ‘loved’ how intense the response was.

‘We’re so lucky to be part of a show where people love the show so much, that they care so much about it that you also get upset when it doesn’t go the way you want it to. That’s fantastic, and I love it, and I love that there was an online petition to have it rewritten,’ he concluded.

[From The Daily Mail]

What was sort of interesting about The Last Watch – the behind-the-scenes documentary about the last season – was that it was clear from the table reads that many of the actors were not happy at all. Even in the promotional interviews done by Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Conleth Hill, Nathalie Emmanuel and more, it’s clear that many of the actors were legitimately torn up about how the last season was handled. It’s not their fault! I think most fans know that too. But it’s possible that it all gets mixed up when fans actually meet one of the actors, and the fans vent their frustrations. Honestly, if I met Emilia Clarke, I would want to vent about how Dan and David did Dany dirty.

Photos courtesy of HBO/GoT.

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