Michael McElhatton

“One of the great achievements of 'Game of Thrones' is that everybody knows at least 10 characters are going to die every year, and yet it is always a shock when they do die.”

“That's what you want to do as an actor and as an artist: move an audience.”

“I like Roose. He was very good to me. Look, how can you remember Roose Bolton? He was a cold, callous, heartless man. He was a good baddie, I think, and there was a lot of great sparring with Ramsay in those scenes.”

“We've all seen so many plays where there's brilliant acting and suddenly there's so many dreadful punches that it takes you out of the moment, or somebody does some bit of violence that jars.”

“There are obviously a multitude of brutal things that happen on 'Game of Thrones,' and the press or social media tend to latch on to particular things, don't they?”

“That's what I love about death on 'Game of Thrones.' Nobody has dying speeches. Nobody has anything like that. Once you're gone, you're gone.”

“The Red Wedding was an amazing experience I'll never forget. We rehearsed it like a play over one whole day, and then shot it over five days.”

“After 'Paths to Freedom,' I met some people who used to teach drama in Mountjoy and they said that the prisoners loved 'Rats.' We went back to Mountjoy to research this film and the governor was showing us around and he introduced us to a few prisoners.”

“There isn't any actor or anybody involved in 'Game of Thrones' who is bigger than the show.”

“I was 20, naive and foolish. I spent a year auditioning for various drama schools but RADA was the one I liked most.”

“When you have a child or you love somebody, that's your Achilles' heel on 'Game of Thrones,' because your enemy will find it. They'll use it again you.”

“You don't always get to send your regards, or anything. You're just gone. That's the way it is. It's shocking and it's over and you're gone. That's the way you hear about people, isn't it? You just hear, 'They're gone. They're dead. You'll never see them again.'”

“Roose is a very cold, pragmatic guy, and he's a survivor. He makes choices based on that, and friendship goes out the window.”

“You just never know how an audience is going to react.”

“TV doesn't, in general, date very well.”

“I actually don't know the legality of inheritance in George R.R. Martin's world.”