Game of Thrones - What You May Not Know About Season One

•The famous unnamed, unanounced, fan-favourite character sporting several lines whom we dubbed King’s Landing Butler (our fandom’s own counterpart to Figwit the elf) was played by Nina Gold’s casting associate Robert Sterne. Talking about fringe benefits! Sterne did great as KLB, I liked his role and the way it was played, even more than the slightly absurd anachronism of calling it butler.

•They used a real, hairy, smelly stag carcass in the Charles Dance (Tywin) intro scene. Yup, honest to god, Dance skinned and gutted a real animal (well, pretended to), take by take. We have no info on it, but the dead stag in the first episode could also have been alive. I mean, once. But that was an outdoor scene, at least – I cannot imagine what that tent must have smelled like.

•In contrast, Hodor’s … erm, hodor in the godswood scene was not the real McCoy. All prosthetics, said Natalia Tena (Osha) in an interview – with Westeros.org, I believe. Which does not go to say that Christian [Kristian] Nairn does not sport a similar tool, but I am not going to check it myself when I meet him in Belfast, either.

•Remember how new and old fans alike cheered at on-screen deaths, decapitations, and general bloodshed all the way until the end of episode 109? Of course you do. However, the viewers quickly established the rules concerning animals. They should be treated with more respect! You can cut off a human head (if it is not Sean Bean’s, that is) but horse decapitations are a no go. It actually all started already in episode 102 where Sansa’s Lady, played by the dog Zunni, meets her demise. Animal rights activists will be happy to hear that Zunni was adopted by Sophie Turner (Sansa) after the shoot. All dogs go to heaven.

•Ros was originally supposed to be a one-scene role. The producers liked Esme Bianco’s turn in the pilot so much they expanded her role, and used her character to translate the story from the books to screen.

•Conan Stevens had campaigned for the role of Gregor years in advance. He even auditioned for Drogo during the pilot casting phase, hoping that getting his face in front of the producers would help when it was time to audition for Gregor. Read this post on his blog to learn about all the steps he took to become the mean brute who likes to post a comment or two on our site every now and then. Seriously, read it. You’ll see why he was once the school chess champion and why he is a member of Mensa International. His other title – that of university beer drinking champion – was not compulsory to secure the role, but I am sure it helped.

Source: Winter-is-Coming