‘Game of Thrones’ season 5: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau reflects on THAT Jaime / Cersei scene

Going into “Game of Thrones” season 5, many fans may have a different opinion of Jaime Lannister than what they did during the early days of season 4. Why? Much of it is due to what we believe to be the most controversial scene in the show’s history: The sexual encounter between his character and Cersei (Lena Headey) at the coffin of their son Joffrey. Upon watching the show, it felt as thought it was presented as a rape. However, what we have heard behind the scenes was that it was not intended to be so. Since then, we’ve mostly just chalked this up as a very poor choice in direction, which failed to really address the nature of this scene properly.

So now that there is some distance between that episode first episode airing and today, what does Nikolaj Coster-Waldau have to say about it? Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he touches on why he has stayed largely quiet on the scene, and how the original intention has differed greatly from what viewers saw or felt:

“I’ve spoken to a lot of people [privately] about this. I haven’t spoken to the people who got the most upset, because they were online. Most people I spoke to got from the scene what we were trying to show—a very complicated relationship, and two people in desperate need for each other. All these emotions going through them, it was never intended to be something where he forced—it wasn’t a rape, and it was never intended to be. But it’s one of those things where you can’t [publicly] say ‘it wasn’t rape,’ because then everybody goes, ‘How can you say it wasn’t rape?!’ But that was definitely not the intention.”

What Coster-Waldau is saying here, in unpacking his statement, is that he is not trying to dismiss the scene by defining what is or is not rape, and stayed quiet out of fear of being misinterpreted. Instead, he is more stating the intention behind the scene.

As for why this is all important now, it is because Jaime and Cersei still have a relationship that is central to the series, even if Jaime may spend some of the season away at Dorne. He will be one of our bridges to this world.

Want to get some other news related to “Game of Thrones”? Then be sure to head over to the link here now! Also, you can sign up to get some further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)