We are just days away from the premiere of HBO’s television adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series Game of Thrones and who better to talk about the show that star, Sean Bean? It’s easy to lump this series into the Lord of the Rings fantasy category especially with Bean starring, but Bean sees Game of Thrones as more akin to another HBO series, The Sopranos:
“It’s like gangster movie and there’s a lot of subtle and scary language, a lot of men of power who are watching each other and plotting in this nest of vipers. At one point, Ned, to save his children, he has to lie, he has to strike a deal and it’s a horrible situation. But I can say no more. The story is vicious and backstabbing and I have to say I enjoyed it, as an actor and as an audience. There’s something in that which captures our attention and our anger.
‘Lord of the Rings’ was more magical and ephemeral and this fantasy conflict between clear good and clear evil. This is much more disturbing. This is not something that children should be watching. George Martin looks like Santa Claus but he’s got a wonderfully disturbed mind.”
This ambitious adaptation undertaken by David Benioff and Dan Weiss pulls no punches on the intricate and politically-laden plotlines, sex, violence, and the need to kill off key characters to stay true to the source material. Bean continues:
“If you’re HBO you can afford to take that risk but then again it’s admirable to make a go of it with something that is so bizarre. You could make another detective show or another cowboy story but this, you have something so strange and characters that are like ‘The Godfather,’ you just want to know how it all ends.”
For writer George R.R. Martin, he couldn’t be happier to have Sean Bean bring Ned Stark to life:
“These characters have been part of me for ages and to have someone like Sean in it, it’s very satisfying. He was always the fan favorite for the role of Ned. When the books become popular, the fans always start casting the movies and they put up ‘dream casts’ on the Internet with major stars for every role. Tom Cruise brings someone a drink and has two lines. But Sean was the one they wanted as Ned from the start and with good reason.”
Bean has played quite a few sword-weilding-warrior men in his repertoire, most notably Boromir in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but “life keeps putting a sword in [his] hands” as Bean explains:
“I like playing guys with swords and the horses and stuff like that. It’s good. But it’d be nice to do something else, maybe a bit of comedy, something more light-hearted? I don’t know. I just take things as they come — I don’t have an agenda — and life keeps putting a sword in my hand or so it seems.”
Game of Thrones premieres on HBO this Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 9/8C.
[Source] LATimes
