With the trailer for the highly anticipated sixth season of Game of Thrones garnering over 27 million views and showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss proclaiming “this is the best [season they’ve] done,” the hype-o-meter for the premier date on April 24 has reached critical levels. The new season promises answers to last season’s cliffhangers, sexual encounters, deaths, and a slew of new faces.
On CJSF’s The Arts Show with Jacob Gradowski this past October, I had the pleasure of interviewing one of those new faces, Eva Butterly, on her upcoming role in season six of Game of Thrones. Having moved from Ireland to Vancouver to pursue acting, Butterly’s life was turned upside down when she heard the announcement that she’d been cast as a “mummer” (member of a performance troupe) in the newest season of the massively popular HBO series.
“When I first found out about [the casting], it definitely overwhelmed me — I had trouble sleeping at night and I was kind of out of balance. It just took me a little adjustment to get myself back to normal.” Butterly remarked. Despite the initial shock, she managed to bounce back, performing in The Virtual Theatre’s annual Halloween performances of Alien Contagion: Rise of the Zombie Syndrome.
Despite its extreme popularity, auditioning for Game of Thrones was, according to Butterly, “a pretty standard audition process. My agent got me the audition and it was just a video, so that was about it.”
Though the audition was standard, the filming of Game of Thrones sounded far from it; Butterly filmed her part of the show in Spain. Even though her days there were undoubtedly grueling, she had the chance to catch up with fellow Ireland-natives while on set: “We got some free time. We got a day off and me and some of the Irish boys who were also in Game of Thrones had some drinks. We had a pretty fun night — went to an Irish bar — it was fun.”
When questioned about how it felt to be an actor acting out being an actor, Butterly’s reply was: “I can’t really answer that, sorry.” It seemed we had reached the 700-foot wall in our conversation. This, however, was hardly surprising — the cast and crew of the show have been notoriously tight-lipped regarding potential spoilers.
Be that as it may, book readers can likely gander a guess at how her character’s role as a mummer fits into the storyline, especially given the fact that Girona, Spain is the filming location for a certain canal-filled city in Essos — (cough) Braavos.
Prior to auditioning, Butterly had always been an avid fan of the series: “I do have a huge picture of Khaleesi up on my bedroom wall,” she admitted, laughing. She and the rest of the Game of Thrones fandom will be eagerly awaiting its premiere on April 24.
