Aidan Gillen has revealed that he was “bereft” after learning that his character was set to be killed off in the season finale of Game of Thrones.
The Irish actor, best known for his role as Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish since the HBO series began in 2011, has told how showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff broke the news.
Speaking to EW.com, Aidan said, “The infamous call. It’s so obvious what it is. Showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff never ring you up — maybe once in six years.
“I learned about that call from Michael McElhatton (who played Roose Bolton) when he told me about his call and he talked about how it made him feel. And I thought if I get that call — or rather when, as this has got to happen sooner or later to a character like Littlefinger — I wondered how it would make me feel.”
Goodbye: Aidan’s character Littlefinger was killed off in the season finale | HBO
“Because the show is such a part of your life for so many years, you start to think, ‘What will your life will be like outside of it?’ It’s a potent loss.
“You’re left a little bereft — for your character and for your experience. It also immediately makes you quantify the hugeness of what that experience has been over the last seven years, which has been massive.”
Viewers who watched the show’s season finale on Sky Atlantic last night will have seen Arya, Sansa and Bran’s plot to kill Littlefinger unfold – and Aidan wasn’t disappointed with his brutal end at the hands of Arya Stark, in fact he had predicted it.
“Well, I did an interview with a publication (in 2015) and they asked me how I thought I would go. I said I thought Arya would deliver the blow. So it was as promised. And even within the scene, as soon as he walks in that room and Arya produces the dagger he knows the game is up.
“No joke. They just promised me a ‘river of blood’. Well, it wasn’t really a river of blood, but they promised me more than poor Michael got. It’s better to go out at the end of (the season) with a good arc then at the start of episode two.
“Even if I’m only in a few episodes — like last season I probably had less than any season — once your character is established as part of the world people feel like you’re there all the time.
“So it’s not really an issue for me how many scenes I’m in as long as the scenes are good, and they’re well put together, and your contribution is good. Then people feel like you’re there all the time. I’m glad I had a good story to finish with.”
“But yeah, I did find it quite emotional (shooting the finale scene). And I don’t necessarily mean that I was sad, but it’s an emotional moment for the character so I felt what he was feeling.”
No regrets: Aidan is happy with how his story ended | VIPIRELAND.COM
“For the real last day at work Dan and David weren’t there but (co-executive producer) Bryan Cogman called people in and said a few words and my son was there with me. That was quite something. And I got my mockingbird pin.
“I had already let them know I wanted it, and I cleverly worked it so I got two. There’s one from my cloak and one from my tunic. So I got the large and the small size — one for me and one for my son.”
“You know, I did pretty well. The character did pretty well. They need to hone the cast down. That’s not an issue, really. The end is when it happens,” he added.
Meanwhile, fans are coming to terms with the fact that the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones won’t air until next summer at the earliest – and HBO bosses have warned that it may be pushed out until early 2019.
However, production is already underway on the final series in Northern Ireland, where most of the show is filmed.
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