Here’s what it’s really like for a “Game of Thrones” actor to get “spoiler trained”
Much like the night is dark and full of terrors, this post is long and full of spoilers. So if you haven’t seen the most recent episode of Game of Thrones, get on that ASAP!
After rowing off in the dark in the Season 3 finale, Gendry made his long-awaited return to Game of Thrones when Ser Davos Seaworth returned to King’s Landing to find him at Flea Bottom.
The last remaining bastard of Robert Baratheon literally stormed back into the show and by the end of “Eastwatch,” he found himself heading on a mission north of the Wall with Jon Snow and a ragtag group of misfits.
The cast of Game of Thrones has long talked about the secretive nature on set, and the lengths they have to go to avoid spoilers. Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry, revealed to Variety that most of the actors on the series have gone through a sort of “spoiler training” to ensure no secrets get out. Having been away from the series for four seasons, he revealed that the process has become even more intense as the series has gotten more and more popular.
"That was one of the main differences in going back in this year. It’s just the small practical things they have to do to make sure that nothing gets out," Dempsie said. "A filming schedule is a rarely spotted thing. If you can get your hands on it you have to kind of devour it then give it back. We don’t really know the scenes we’re shooting until the week before. The call sheets are all sort of coded, so your character name is something completely different. Unless you had the key, you’d have no idea which characters are in scenes with which other characters."
He added, “Then just other things like, you get given a set of sides in the morning — which is like the script for what you’re shooting that day. You have to sign for them and then make sure you give them back in the end of the day or someone gets in trouble.”
Wow, the Game of Thrones security measures sound even more intense than expected.
If we were actors on the show, we’d be terrified to even hold a script.
But while intense, they seem to work for the most part. While we *knew* Gendry had to be returning, we were (pleasantly) surprised to see him reemerge at Flea Bottom. Now, all he needs to do is survive the adventure north of The Wall so we can really enjoy his return (and so he can reunite with Arya).
