Alexander Siddig has never been shy about his opinions. The actor who originally rose to fame for his role as Julian Bashir in Star Trek: Deep Space 9 was one of the biggest A-lister names the show brought in after it became an established hit. And though Trek was a global phenomenon when Siddig first got cast in it, he says the experience was nothing like the one he lived through with Thrones.
In a wide ranging interview with StarTrek.com, Siddig was asked to compare his experience boarding a Federation starbase with boarding the Game of Thrones production bubble. He says the way technology is now changes the landscape to much that the experiences almost can’t compare.
Everybody is paranoid about some leak on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube. The internet has changed the landscape since 1992. Pretty much you had a blog with no pictures in 1992, and you couldn’t really get anything exciting on the web. But now you can leak pictures and footage, and people can get the episodes and the scripts and whatnot. So I think the secrecy is kind of understandable, but also there is an element of hype about it that makes it… the more secretive it is, the more special it is. And certainly Game of Thrones plays that.
How odd…it says “Hail Hydra.”
Siddig also confirms what some of us have become all too aware of after last season’s filming: “They misinform the crowd and they give them tidbits to send them in wrong directions.” As we know, at one point the actress who played Tyrion’s late lover Shae was sen on set, and even in costume, sending us into spirals of “why is she there?” It was all misdirection.
But then he says something jawdropping:
…last season, I believe that the first few episodes were stolen and downloaded online, and everybody got to see them before the show actually aired, and everybody was furious at HBO and whatnot. I don’t know if you remember. I am almost positive that those four episodes were leaked by HBO themselves. So there is an enormous amount of spin going on. I can’t tell you that for sure; that’s just my opinion, but it’s games; everybody’s playing these games.
Ok, that’s a HELL of an accusation. For many reasons, but mainly because it was used as an excuse for their to be *zero* screeners sent out this past year. The only people who saw any of Season 6 ahead of time (other than Entertainment Weekly, who has the inside track with the production) were those who were invited to the top secret premiere of the premiere episode in Los Angeles three weeks before the show debuted. If there’s any truth to this (and I don’t actually think their is) then that means HBO played a long game on giving themselves an excuse to keep Jon Snow’s resurrection under wraps from every angle.
Speaking of death, Siddig’s quote of what it was like during his time in the bubble is downright hilarious. “My goodness, you’re just throwing this dough around, this cash. …It was so huge. That’s what I remember, everything was so huge. And actors praying they weren’t going to be killed.”
As for his own character, Siddig reveals he was originally contracted for four episodes for Season 6. So what happened? He doesn’t know. He claims when he got “the call” he was told the original plan was to kill him at the end of Season 5, but it was delayed “so we’re going to have to kill you off at the beginning of next season.”
I was like, “Okay, life goes on.” But there was something wrong about that because I had been contracted for four episodes in the following season, so if they were going to kill me off at the end of the last season why would they contract me for those four episodes? Because it costs them money whether I do them or not, so it’s not great business sense to do it just in case. …maybe I just screwed up. Maybe I said the wrong thing to the wrong person.
Or maybe the show realized it screwed up the Dorne storyline so badly, a mercy killing was the only way. Siddig doesn’t seem troubled though. He says, as a big named actor, you don’t want to be on a show like that for too long, since, if you’re not a lead, you’re not on screen that long, but it still ties up your schedule for other work. “…being on it at all sticks, and everyone goes, “Oh, the guy from Game of Thrones!” It doesn’t really matter that you weren’t on it very long.”
Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/09/22/alexander-siddig-talks-secrecy-game-thrones/
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