'Game of Thrones' star Conleth Hill was 'frustrated' with final two seasons
Spoilers lie ahead for The Bells, the latest episode of Game of Thrones...
Game of Thrones star Conleth Hill has said that he’s found the last two seasons of ‘frustrating’.
The Irish actor, who played spymaster Varys in the HBO series, spoke at length about his character's arc in an exit interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“That’s been my feeling the last couple seasons, that my character became more peripheral, that they concentrated on others more,” he said.
“That’s fine. It’s the nature of a multi-character show. It was kind of frustrating. As a whole it’s been overwhelmingly positive and brilliant but I suppose the last couple seasons weren’t my favorite.”
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The show overtook writer George R.R. Martin's books at the beginning of season six, and book aficionados weren't the only ones to note that the show was left lacking some of the storytelling of previous seasons.
Hill also said that he'd hoped that there would be a scene with his nemesis Lord Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish, before the latter's demise at the hands of Arya Stark during his brief trial at Winterfell.
“I think they tried to make that work and couldn’t. It just felt like after season six, I kind of dropped off the edge,” Hill said.
“I can’t complain because it’s six great seasons and I had some great scenes these last two seasons. But that’s when it changed for me a little.
“I was very bummed to not have a final scene with [Littlefinger]. I was bummed not to have any reaction to him dying, if he was my nemesis.
“Last season and this season there were great scenes and then I’d come in and kind of give a weather report at the end of them — ‘film at 11.’
“So I thought he was losing his knowledge. If he was such an intelligent man and he had such resources, how come he didn’t know about things? That added to my dismay. It’s now being rectified with getting a great and noble ending. But that was frustrating for a couple seasons.”
He went on to say that some of his favourite scenes were when he and Peter Dinklage's Tyrion began to bond.
“I think the stuff that was said... understood the nature of freaks and outsiders so precisely. In a way, that was lost when we got past [the] books,” he said.
“That special niche interest in weirdos wasn’t as effective as it had been.”
Varys was executed by dragonfire in the most recent episode of the show, for plotting to try and overthrow Daenerys prior to her assault on King's Landing, which, as it turns out, would have saved thousands of lives.
Read more: The Bells recap - what just happened?!
As for his feelings on his exit, he said: “Mixed, obviously. Part of you didn’t want it to finish. Part of you is, 'Oh, that’s very good.' And part of you is, 'Oh, that sucks.' Very, very mixed. Bittersweet. I think it’s really good in retrospect now that I’ve had the time for it to sink in.
“At the time, nothing could console me. I kept thinking: “What did I do wrong?” There wasn’t any pre-warning. All these famous stories about [actors on Thrones] being taken out for a meal or being phoned at the very least [to notify them that their character was being killed off]. This was just reading cold hard copy.”
Game of Thrones will air its final ever episode on Sunday night in the US, released by Sky Atlantic in the early hours of Monday morning.
