ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you first get involved withGame of Thrones?
IAN McSHANE: Well, they wrote a two-page speech so that’s why they invited me.
It’s a big soliloquy, like inDeadwood, and they needed to get somebody who could do that.
Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO
It was really well written.
Rory was a delight to work with, and so was the director.
The whole experience was five days in Belfast, and I enjoyed it a lot.
What did you appreciate about Brother Ray?
It seems like a different kind of role than some of the others that you’re best known for.
It was one episode, for a start, which is why I wanted to do it.
Obviously he’s going to die.
But when I read it, it’s nice.
It’s like he’s holding an improvised meeting not Alcoholics Anonymous, but Murderer’s Anonymous.
That will be good!"
Do think that message will stick?
I don’t know what happens in the next episodes.
You have to have revenge, and expedient revenge.
I don’t believe in the death penalty, but I understand personal vengeance.
How do you reconcile those in real life?
In film, you’re able to do it very easily.
You show somebody has been wronged and therefore their morality is in the right place.
What’s it like filming a death scene where you’re hanged?
It’s got to be different than just rolling over and playing dead.
It’s very easy.
You just have to hold your breath for 10 seconds and look sufficiently dead for them to get it.
Was it odd coming into this huge international hit for what was essentially a one-off performance?
It’s the most popular TV show in the world, isn’t it?
It’s kind of likeDeadwoodwhen we started off, but they’ve managed to go another three seasons.
I only needed Rory [for my scenes], so I didn’t meet anybody else in it.
Everything about the production is so secretive.
That’s the natural extension of the Internet.
I don’t pay much attention to that.
I don’t do social media.
It’s like the [butterfly effect] multiplied by 20; little things that have great affect.
And you know it’s all just more publicity and it just adds to the popularity of the show.
People are fascinated by it.
Is Jon Snow going to come back?
Is it going to be The Hound?
[Fans are] involved in the world and then they work it out, which is great.
It all about publicity, which is why I’m talking to you, isn’t it?
The screen comes up and it’s watermarked and black and white.
It’s like viewing the Navy’s war plan.
What was the reaction you got to that.
Did the producers or online grid say anything?
And I said well, you know what I said.
Suddenly they all go apesht.
And I thought, “Oh they’ll probably love that at HBO!”
I find the whole thing funny.
Of course I’d love to reprise that.
Hubris or money or whatever.
But [Deadwood] certainly finished too early.
At the time, most of us working on the show were incredulous.
It’s been announced by HBO, so its not like I’m saying it.
I know for a fact David is working on the script.
It’s been 10 years since it finished.
[Star Timothy Olyphant’s] free fromJustified.
It was a very close knit group of actors on it.
We got along very well.
They haven’t done the deal yet.
They [were planning] to do it late this year or early next year.
You also have another show coming up, Starz’American Godsbased on Neil Gaiman’s novel.
Can you give us a sense of what that’s like so far?
Yeah, another show the Internet loves.
I think it’s terrific.
I read the book.
It seemed to be a perfect blueprint for a series.
It just seems like one of those shows that could be quite extraordinary.
There’s a lot of special effects, which is why I have time off now.
They got these big sequences they have to do back in Toronto.
Good writing, great character, there’s other terrific people in the show playing the various guest gods.
Speaking of your film work, I’m very excited aboutJohn Wick 2.
What can we expect?
You have a role bigger than the first one I hear?
Well, I’m kind of the only one left from the first one.
This is same kind of premise.
It’s not like two years later, but pretty soon after the first one.
Keanu [Reeves] is a great guy.
And the guy who directs it, Chad Stahelski, is really smart.
He’s been Keanu’s stunt guy for [nearly] 20 years and he’s studied muay-thai.
He’s got every stunt man who’s available for [this film].
And so, the story is again a vengeance premise, to some degree?
Keanu gets a new dog.
But yes, it’s about what comes on him after that.
It’s all about the assassin’s code, if you like.
I loved the first one.
This could be even better than the first.
Sam Rockwell plays Ego and Michael K. Williams plays Negativity.
It’s all part of Dr. Dre’s psyche.
It’s Dre’s idea a cross between reality television, scripted television, and dramatic television.
Separately, Cogman gives a bit of insight into that scene withinstant breakout Lyanna Mormont.
