Exclusive: Sam Spruell & Daniel Ings Discuss Their Faithful New Series, ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’
HBO is set to release their latest Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in the next few days. Based off the novella, The Hedge Knight, BeautifulBallad had the opportunity to catch up with two of stars of the series, Sam Spruell and Daniel Ings.
On instilling their characters with their own interpretations:
Ings: Ira [Parker], our showrunner, had done so much of the work for us, in terms of taking the books, the source material, and adapting it, and fleshing out, giving life to these characters and fleshing them out. I was playing The Laughing Storm, so there was an element to which it was going to have to be a lot of fun. I wanted to try and create a character that would inject some chaos and some anarchic fun and bon vivant energy into Westeros. iIt was easy to do because Ira was super open to ad-libbing and building out these sequences. Owen [Harris], our director would would just constantly be egging me on. So those guys made it easy.
Spruell: “The script’s full of the supporting roles who are really characterful and there’s loads going on from my own point of view. The kind of dysfunctional family that I’m a part of, my own kind of dysfunction as a father, having the two older sons that you see, one’s a kind of alcoholic. The other is kind of unhinged and violent without any kind of moral code whatsoever. There’s that kind of failure that I live with as a father that is so interesting to me to play and also being second in line to the throne, all the kind of neurosis. The difficulty I have with that is really interesting to play as well, to feel second best, to feel deficient as a leader compared to Baelor. That was really exciting to explore”
On working with fellow costar, Peter Claffey:
Ings: “Peter is kind of Dunk-like in a way. He’s very sweet and good-natured and fun to be around, and funny. So for me, playing these scenes opposite him, it was very easy to imagine myself as a guy hanging out with someone who is fun and just generally a good time. And Peter’s so open and so will just come back at you with whatever you give him.”
On getting to lean on more comedic elements throughout a show like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms:
Ings: “I loved it because it’s obviously an opportunity to come and play in a sandbox that already has a built-in fan base, not only the two shows that have come before, but all the books. And people love these characters and they kind of have a life already in the minds of readers and people who have created fan fiction and all that kind of stuff. So it’s an incredible sandbox to come and play in, especially because these books do have quite a distinct tone in and of themselves. And they’re such faithful adaptations that it was all kind of there in the script. You could feel this cheeky sense of humor in the words that Ira [Parker] had written and then the way he translated it. So it was exciting to be able to lean on some of those comic instincts, but also trying to, subvert them and find things that are surprising, keep a sense of danger and threat. You want to feel, even in the original Game of Thrones, Tyrion can be funny and Bronn is kind of funny at points and dry, but you do believe that these people are ruthless as well, and that they would kill you just as soon as look at you. And finding that slightly more menacing edge and keeping that alive. In case of my character, he’s kind of manic and a bit of a mad dog, and, I had a lot of fun bringing that to life.”
Sam Spruell: “I don’t have any problem with the menace. That’s been quite a lot of my career, but what I found interesting was just playing the truth of the family. I found it as we went along that Baelor, Bertie Carvel had these long kind of speeches where he’d have to explain ancient folklore or ancient ceremony. And I suddenly thought, ‘This is the guy who’s read all the books. My character definitely hasn’t.’ That just provided a kind of fertile ground to kind of undercut the earnestness of Baelor and the studiousness of him as well. I really enjoyed that kind of younger brother.”
On whether they felt any intimidation on taking on these roles:
Spruell: “I feel intimidated about taking on any role, to be honest. Before you start, you get the job and there is the the realization that you’ve actually got to play the part. But you can’t ever think about how it’s going to be received in a way. Of course your mind kind of strays to that, but on the whole, you’ve just got to concentrate on the work, creating as truthful and as full a character as possible. And that’s slightly harder with something like Game of Thrones, but the same applies. What was great was that we were given scripts with so much stuff involved with each character, so much to play from and to play with, that I didn’t really think about how it was going to be received. Now, talking to press, is really the first time I was like, ‘Oh my God, people are going to watch this.’ But I think that’s also something that I can do as an actor. I always forget that people are actually going to watch this. But you’re aided in that by having such good material, such great, full, eccentric characters to play with.”
Ings: “I basically just sort of said yes before thinking too deeply about what I’d just done and then had a great time filming it. It was almost like in the cold light of day thinking, ‘Actually fuck, what have I done? People really love these characters.’ But it’s too late now. I’m really proud of the show. I love the way it came out. It’s a very sort of pretty show. I think it looks beautiful. The music’s beautiful. And so I hope people will enjoy it in the way that they have embraced these previous adaptations because it’s super favor.”
On sticking closely to the source material:
Spruell: “We both read the book and we both were in the show and they are very close. That provided the direction of travel, let’s stick to the book, let’s see what happens when we do that. That kind of discipline was fun, but also there were times where we were allowed some kind of room to add little flourishes of our own that weren’t really talked about or weren’t really planned, but just kind of came out in the playing of it. That is when you have a good script and then a good bunch of actors working together, that’s when some real magic can happen. That’s certainly not as a result of what I was doing, but I certainly witnessed that happen and that was really exciting. There was some room for interpretation as well. It wasn’t all written. You could have your own thoughts which create a certain color, a certain tone, which was creative and an addition to what has been written in the book and the script. It was a very creative process all round.”
Ings: “A lot of that legwork was done by Ira [Parker], who was really steeped in these books and worked really closely with George [Martin]. I think that was the brief from the off. Let’s make these things stick closely to the books because people love them and actually you don’t need to mess with them. It was an interesting opportunity, particularly where moments or characters are fleshed out. It can stay faithful to the story. It can stay faithful to the plotting and the characters in the book whilst giving you a little bit of an opportunity to kind of play and flex.”
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres on HBO on January 18.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo Credit: Steffan Hill/HBO