Liam Cunningham doesn’t have to worry about dealing with any angry fans (unlike, say, his co-star David Bradley).
Instead, the actor behind Davos Seaworth, Stannis Baratheon’s loyal right-hand man, on HBO’s “Game of Thrones” gets to sit back and enjoy viewers’ increasingly insatiable appetite for all things “Thrones.” It's what makes Cunningham a good choice to launch the Toronto return engagement of the fantasy series’ travelling show, “Game of Thrones: The Exhibition,” at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
The exhibit is on its international tour, having made stops in New York City, Rio de Janiero, Belfast and SXSW. It features features costumes, a replica Iron Throne, a special In Memoriam wall dedicated to characters lost over the years (i.e. spoiler alert), and props ranging from weaponry and dragon eggs to Davos’ pouch full of fingers and Theon Greyjoy’s… well, that one stays in the box.
The guaranteed showstopper though is the new Oculus Rift interactive experience “Ascend the Wall,” which offers fans an immersive (and stomach-churning) virtual reality ride up the Night’s Watch elevator.
With the free special exhibition running from May 14-18 at TIFF Bell Lightbox (the event is currently sold out, but rush tickets will be available), HuffPost TV Canada sat down with Cunningham to talk about the show’s exponentially growing fanbase, what episode earned him the most love from viewers, and what happens to best-laid plans in Westeros.
HuffPost TV Canada: I saw you’ve got some… pieces in the exhibit.
Yeah! Well, the fingers were in there before, but this is the first time that Team Dragonstone have been there, so it’s very, very strange to be in Toronto looking at my costume — I’ve got it on, so I don’t look at it that much, but to see the other two with no bodies in those costumes. And they’re the real deal, they’re the ones we’re going to be wearing in July and August, they are the real thing. So that’s kind of cool and, yeah, it’s really weird.
HuffPost TV Canada: So do you find allegiances form around your storylines then, as far as Team Dragonstone goes?
[Laughs] Sometimes we have a bit of a laugh with it, who’s going to last and who’s going to die. But it’s weird, you don’t see [the other castmembers] that often, because you have to remember, Daenerys [Emilia Clarke] is in Morocco and Croatia most of the time. I’m up in Northern Ireland, and then, at Castle Black, we weren’t really involved with them.
So you’re kind of ships passing in the night with the puppet masters of David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] moving us all around. This is the first event that I’ve done where other cast members haven’t been. I was in São Paulo last year with Alfie [Allen], Theon, so we spent a bit of time there. I was just in Paris and Milan and London with the two girls, with Maisie [Williams] and Sophie [Turner], who plays Sansa, and they’re great fun to be around. So we kind of see each other off-piece, if you know what I mean.
HuffPost TV Canada: It really feels like this show hit another gear this season and people just can’t seem to get enough of it. How much fun is that for you to be part of something that viewers are so invested in?
We could all be terribly clever and say we knew it was going to go through the roof and we knew fans were waiting for it and all that, but it doesn’t work like that.I mean, all you can do is the bit you do, so when I saw the scripts and saw the quality of the writing in this and obviously the story from George [R.R. Martin] and HBO’s track record with quality stuff.
I mean, the dudes have taste. And deep pockets, which allows them to invest in something like this. Which is a huge investment, especially for a fantasy show, which has cult written all over it. It doesn’t have popular written all over it. People will take it to their hearts and do the cosplay thing and all that, but it’s not really famed for its money-generating capacity or the quality of the drama.
And I think what the show has done is provided this incredibly expansive backdrop of dragons and shadow babies and witches, and all this weirdness and this completely invented world, and put this fantastic drama, these fully realized characters in the middle of this insane world. And it’s the quality of the writing and the storytelling, and dare I say it — and I’m one of very many — the quality of casting and the actors that are on the show that have kind of raised the level of it. It’s going to be a difficult one to surpass.
But from a viewer’s point of view, what I think it’s done is they’ve really taken it to their hearts. I think they really know that they’re not being patronized or being treated with this lowest common denominator bulls**t that there’s a lot of around. And not only that, your expectations get turned over constantly on this. You really don’t know what to expect. And what you do expect, you get kicked in the face, because it’s completely wrong. It’s a bit like life, and I think people respect that and they feel a real connection with it because of it.
Story Continues After The Gallery
"Game of Thrones" Epic Fan Experience
HuffPost TV Canada: Is there any added pressure now though knowing that every single detail of the show will be dissected come Monday morning?
[Laughs] There’s a lot of people who work on the show and there’s a lot of people who have their eye on that sort of stuff from the get-go. But look, the two biggest fans of all are David and Dan, they’ve invested almost 10 years of their lives in getting this thing off the ground. And they have a huge team they’ve assembled, Bryan Cogman and the producers and obviously HBO, in keeping this right; there’s nobody got their eyes more on the quality of the show and the attention to detail.
I mean, look at the production design and the costumes. It’s a joined effort to get this thing as beautiful as we can get it. And everybody does feel a responsibility, especially now that it’s turned into this phenomenon that people have really taken ownership of. They’ve invested in it. Almost religiously invested in it. But they’ve invested their time in it and their commitment.
And in a bizarre way, the Internet for this has become the water cooler. There’s a huge thing where people want to meet online and go, “What the f**k was going on yesterday?” And complete strangers comment back and go, “Well, we think it’s this.” The moral compass of the show and the ambiguity of it, you really don’t know where it’s going to go, and they sail really close to the edge on this thing.
And so we should. We would be doing the story a disservice if we diluted the dangerous quality of the drama, as well as the sex and the violence, and the jealousy and the paranoia. You’ve gotta let those run. I defy anybody who’s watched it closely to not sit down with their mates and go, “What the f**k is going on there? What do you think is gonna happen?” It demands conversation. Because you find yourself at the end of the show each episode going, “Where the f**k is that going to be taken? What was that there for?”
I think it’s incredible. Because I feel the same about it. Because I’m only a small section of this, so when I sit down and watch it, I’m exactly the same as anybody who’s read the books. I’m sitting there, and I’m not sure where the story’s going to go, and I don’t want to know. But that’s what I really like about the show. I’m really proud to be involved in it.
HuffPost TV Canada: Has there been a moment or episode where you got the most feedback from fans afterwards?
“Blackwater” [Season 2, Episode 9] was a big one. Because there’d been scenes with myself and my son, and we’d obviously had a very good relationship, and when the battle that I had basically organized, to come back and have Melisandre blaming the whole thing on me, and me having lost my son… There was a great upswell of sympathy for Davos.
And I think that’s one of the reasons that the fans like the character, he’s this f**king decent guy in a nest of vipers. And I think they like him because in this show, good does not always f**king triumph, and this guy, if he sticks to his principles and his morals and his loyalty, he could end up with his head in his lap. Like Ned Stark. So it’ll be interesting to see where it takes the character and the story and the whole Team Dragonstone, and “Game of Thrones” itself.
HuffPost TV Canada: Well, judging from the last episode at least, you guys are starting to look like you’re on the way up
We may be on the way up here. Yeah, because we’ve had like a season and a half of looking like the poor men of Westeros, and Stannis has kicked me up the ass to try and get some sort of a plan together. Which now seems to be working. However… we shall see where that takes us.
HuffPost TV Canada: It seems like it’s dangerous to have a plan in Westeros.
[Laughs] Oh, it is dangerous. You’re better off saying nothing, keeping quiet and don’t draw attention to yourself in Westeros. Because generally speaking, it ends up in death.
HuffPost TV Canada: Are you enjoying that your storyline is taking you out into the world more now, as opposed to having to just sit in Dragonstone for months on end?
It’s great. I mean, the whole thing with talking to the Iron Bank of Braavos is to do exactly that. So yeah, maybe I’ll get to see some more interesting locations. [Laughs] If the plan works. We don’t know that yet. We shall wait and see.
“Game of Thrones: The Exhibition” is a free, five-day, timed-ticket event running from May 14-18 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Tickets are sold out, but a rush line will be available. Watch Season 4 of “Game of Thrones” on HBO and HBO Canada on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/MT.