‘Game of Thrones’ season 4, episode 8: Pedro Pascal, Hafthor Julius Bjornsson on fight
Going into this season of “Game of Thrones,” who out there (save for readers of the book) would have thought that there was going to be a post-mortem interview at some point with Hafthor Julius Bjornsson? The actor is the third person to play The Mountain since the start of the series, and it was hard to tell why this person kept being replaced.
Hey, it turns out that Bjornsson was the perfect person for the part in that he brought everything you would want from The Mountain. Not only was he extremely physical in this fight, but he was downright evil in how he completely smashed the face of Oberyn Martell after it seemed as though he was losing the fight. The one thing that got in the way for the Viper in the end was pride, which is something that The Mountain cares little about. He is a downright sociopath, and a pretty terrible character.
So was Bjornsson (who is an incredibly strong man even in real life) worried about actually hurting Pedro Pascal? Per his comments via The Hollywood Reporter, it certainly seems like most of his fears came during the rehearsal side of things:
“We had to be careful during rehearsal but during the fight itself, while filming, we had to go all in and that is where all the hard work paid off so no one got hurt, but we were able to create this amazing fight.”
Meanwhile, Pascal (who was Emmy-worthy with his performance tonight) also commented on what it was like being in the center of this fight:
“It felt as epic as it is in the story. We were in this really beautiful location in Dubrovnik, Croatia overlooking the Asiatic Sea. The design team had created this incredible arena for a battle right on the water with these immaculately dressed extras. It was breathtaking to be a part of. The show upped its game as far as its own production design — which it’s already incredible at.”
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Photo: HBO