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<em>Game Of Thrones</em> Actors Discuss Sexposition: "The Work Is The Work"
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 31, 2013
Modified Mar 31, 2013
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Margaery Tyrell
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 31, 2013
Modified Mar 31, 2013
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Ned's head is on a stick, Jon Snow looks appropriately sad, Cersei is drunk, and Melisandre is still yammering on about the Lord of Light—Game Of Thrones is back tonight! And with it comes more of that special something that places GoT above all its other premium cable competitors: sexposition (the art of peppering otherwise dry narrative dumps with nudity and sex scenes). Gothamist's favorite actress Natalie Dormer, aka Margaery Tyrell, told the Post it is what it is: “The work is the work, that’s the way it is.” You can see a NSFW compilation of the show's greatest sexposition hits below.
In an interview with the News, Dormer gave more details about what it's like on set when those scenes come up: “They put us all up in the same hotel whether we’re (filming) in Croatia or Belfast, so pretty much the person who has a sex scene at the end of the week is the person who’s in the gym or not coming out for dinner,” she told them, laughing. You can read an excellent, detailed interview with Dormer all about Margaery's place in the world of GoT at Hitfix.
In an interview with Mother Jones, series creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss discuss walking a fine line with it: "Personally, I pay less attention to intricate plot points delivered during sex scenes," Benioff joked when asked whether people pay closer to attention to scenes with nudity. "Yes, that's a tricky line to walk," added Weiss. "Sex grabs people's attention. But once it has their attention, it tends not to let go of it." But both posited that George R. R. Martin's books are chockfull of even more extreme sexual situations, something which Gothamite and Martin aficionado David Jacobs agrees with wholeheartedly: "The oft-parodied levels of sex and violence in the show are taken to an even higher level in the books."
Esme Bianco, who plays the whore Ros who has become a favorite of Littlefinger, was also sensitive to criticisms of the sexposition scenes, many of which she has been in: “The books are not an easy read. They are brutal and have their fair share of sex in them. It would be naïve to think that HBO would take a story in that genre and just do the safe …version of it. That scene is beautifully shot and shows quite clearly the kind of world that the characters are living in.”
New cast member Ciaran Hinds, who plays the much-talked-about leader of the Wildings, Mance Rayder, sounded much more put off by the sexposition in an interview with Irish Central: “I saw the first series and I found some of the sexuality and violence a little gratuitous and it annoyed me but then it calmed down a bit, but the storytelling and the juggling of the storylines are fantastic. It draws you in and takes you elsewhere.” We're a little surprised by his reaction, considering the fact he starred in another sex-friendly HBO classic, Rome.
But fellow actor John Bradley, who plays the bumbling Night's Watch member Samwell Tarly, told the Post he was much less apprehensive about more nudity: “I hope so. If not, I’m going to be sorely disappointed.” Something tells us he really gets on with 13-year-old show consultant Adam Friedberg:
SNL Game of Thrones from pedro iglesias on Vimeo.
Tagged
beloved
game of thrones
HBO
natalie dormer
NSFW
nudity
sexposition
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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