ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Okay first, what’s your take on season 6?
ISAAC HEMPSTEAD-WRIGHT:Season 6 is superb.
Things are really starting to tie up.
Credit: HBO
When you first got the scripts, what was your reaction to the way your part had evolved?
“Oh, that’s the best scene I’ve ever done!
On that scene is even better!”
So this is Bran’s best season?
His first two seasons he was reacting to other people’s storylines.
Then he started to get his own thing with his dreaming and journeying north.
But we weren’t sure what was going on.
Now we’ve learned his storyline is pretty damn important.
I love this season so much.
His been very insular in his storyline.
Now he’s realized he’s been having his dreams because he’s got to save Westeros.
It’s such a cool storyline now.
What can we expect from his visions?
Bran is pretty damn close to being the Three-Eyed Raven now.
Equally, he’s now discovering how crucial he could be in the Great War.
So his powers have progressed quite a bit since we last saw him.
It started off with these disturbing dreams and finding he could control direwolves.
Then he discovered he could warg into humans.
Then he started to have these weird visions.
It’s Doctor Bran!
In Bran’s visions, from what we’ve seen in the trailers, you get to stand up.
Has that been a refreshing change?
Then you’re like, “You know what?
Can we go back to the cave so I can lie down again and just relax?”
But no, it’s been nice to stand up for a bit this season.
You’re also working with Max von Sydow, who has an incredible silver screen history.
He’s a charming man.
He just amplifies the sense of creativeness and it’s quite something to stand next to.
And he’s also a completely lovely man.
What was your reaction when you first learned you would be taking a year off?
Usually when you get a phone call from David and Dan it’s to tell you you’re dead.
So, comparatively missing a season, I was like “whew!”
Did you miss being away from the show?
Or was it nice to take a break?
By the end of it I was like, “I do missThrones.
I miss Belfast.”
It’s nice to come back.
Did your perspective on the show change during that year?
I saw really how huge it was.
Being an outsider and seeing all the posters and all the chatter about it, that was quite bizarre.
What was it like watchingGame of Thronesseason 5 while sitting a season out?
I still haven’t seen it.
How is that possible?
I’ve been so busy.
He’s got a grasp of what’s going on all over the kingdoms.
Is there anything you did to prepare for your return into character?
Having done this since I was about 10, it never really registered that I was even acting.
It was just, “Come here, read these lines, put this costume on.”
I treated this season as if Bran knew everything that was going on.
What’s the moment you felt most connected to Bran?
I’ve had such a cushy existence compared to the horrors that Bran has gone through.
So there’s not a whole lot that I kind of necessarily connect to him.
But I feel I took something away from his overall arc.
He ran into Jon at Craster’s Keep and he could’ve said, “Jon take me home.
I can’t deal with this anymore.
I just want to relax and be taken care of.”
But he hasn’t.
Did you see our season premiere coverage?
