Opening Up: Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie Speaks About Brienne’s Inner Struggles

Game of Thrones fave Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) recently spoke about her character’s personal emotional growth and the heartbreaking monologue she gave in this past week’s episode, “High Sparrow.”

When the interviewer from the official HBO production diary, Making Game of Thrones, asked about the ball and whether Brienne “wants that life,” Christie said:

Women are all brought up with a series of conventional expectations, so one cannot help but want recognition or affirmation in those areas. I think what’s so beautiful and interesting about the character of Brienne of Tarth is yes, she’s strong; she’s a badass; she has vulnerability.

But in all of her lack of convention and her uniqueness, all women can identify with her because she wants to be loved in the way that as human beings – male or female – we all want to be loved. We see the pureness of her humanity, and that she’s something that isn’t so far away from all of us.

To witness such a strong, proud character share these feelings of wanting to be loved and cared for definitely tugged at the heartstrings a bit. It added another dimension to Brienne’s personality, one that is so rarely shown. Watching her speak to Pod, it was clear that these feelings are something she’s thought long and hard about, but never really vocalized.

The act of Pod removing Brienne’s armor, but only partially, adds an obvious visual element to what’s happening in their partnership: she’s coming out of her armor and letting her guard down. Not only does it solidify Brienne and Pod’s relationship, but it also shows that there’s common ground between the two characters.

Christie explained that Brienne and Pod are both people who “[have] been marginalized as unsuitable to become what they want – a knight.” She expanded on their buddy cop relationship and said, “She sees that she played a part in [marginalizing Pod], and treated him the way that she had been treated in the past. She decides to change that and to empower him.”

In a genre littered with stories of men enabling and empowering women, it’s refreshing to see the script flipped, and with such skill by a great actress.

(via Winter Is Coming)

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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