The highly anticipated Season 4 of HBO’s smash “Game of Thrones” returns on April 6.
The Source Magazine was on the red carpet for the New York premiere of “GOT” Season 4 at Avery Fisher Hall. A massive red carpet lined the Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln center and there was even a life sized dragon stationed nearby. Watch our exclusive video interview with the show’s Executive Producer, sometimes writer and the book’s author George R. R. Martin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZlNlE2lIJE
Q: Is there anything on this show that’s different from the books that you thought was an excellent change or you disliked?
GRRM: In the books, I’m restricted to a point of view structure. I have a limited number of points of view and we see the story through their eyes. So you never see scenes unless one of my points of view are present. But David and Dan don’t have that restriction so in the first season they had a scene between Cersei and Robert where they discuss their marriage. Incredible scene, but in the first book, neither Cersei nor Robert is a point of view character so I couldn’t write that scene, but it’s something that could exist. In the second season, similarly, in the black border episode which I wrote mostly but, David and Dan added a scene between Bran and the Hound, a confrontation in a brothel, before the bells rang and again, no point of view present, so I could not have included that scene but it’s a great scene. It was wonderful addition to the story.
Q: Do you get veto power?
GRRM: No, no. They’re the show runners. I have complete veto power over the books and they have complete power over the show and I guess HBO has veto power over them and you know, who knows?
Q: What character would you say is spot on in terms of how you created them?
GRRM: Tyrion! The was Peter has done Tyrion. He’s actually different from Tyrion in the books, in certain physical ways. I mean Peter Dinklage is significantly taller then Tyrion in the books and much better looking than Tyrion in the book who is described numerous times as not being a really attractive man, but Peter has made that character his and you can’t have anyone else in the role. I definitely can’t. Maisie Williams as Arya, is spot on. Again physically, not what I described, but it’s the acting ability that matters. It’s the personality you bring to it. You can’t just pick people for their hair color or the shape of their face. You have to go with the best actors.
Q: Who’s your favorite character?
GRRM: Tyrion … No, but I love all the characters. I mean, they’re my children even the bad characters you know. Or the weak characters, Theon. You write them, you get inside their skin and you develop a certain amount of affection for them.
Q: Would you rather have been at the red wedding or the royal purple wedding?
GRRM: I think I would avoid weddings in Westeros …
Q: Have you ever gotten a fan letter or reader comment that really touched you?
GRRM: I received a lot of letters in regard to the Red wedding when it came out 13 years ago in the book. And a lot of them were “I hate you”, “You’re scum”, “I threw your book in the fire”, “I’m never going to read a word of yours again” and some of them ended there. There were also ones that said “I threw your book in the fire and then a week later, I had to go out and buy another copy because I had to find out what happened.” So those I liked. But there was one I remember that was a very thoughtful criticism from a woman who wrote me and said she was not going to read my work. But it was not the angry attacking letter. It was more of a sorrowful tone saying “I‘ve had a very horrible life. My mother is very sick, we don’t have much money, I work two jobs and my kid has a problem with drinking and I go back and I read books to bring myself joy in my life. I was enjoying your books and I hit the red wedding and I feel like you beat the hell out of me with a baseball bat. This is not why I read.” I answered her and said “I’m sorry, I understand where you’re coming from, I felt that way myself at times and there are times where my life has been very hard, I’ve kind of lost myself in a book to forget something terrible happening in my life but nonetheless, that is not what I am writing as an artist. There are a lot of people out there who will write books, in which everything turns out nicely and the bad guys lose, the good guys win, the boy gets the girl and they live happily ever after. There’s a million books like that and if that’s the comfort you’re looking for, you should read those books and not my books because that’s not the kind of book that I am interested in.” I respected her opinion. Not all books are for all people. We read for different reasons.
Q: The way that women are portrayed both in the books and on the show is very interesting and very progressive, but also controversial at times. In some ways do you consider yourself to be feminist or do you consider your work to be feminist?
GRRM: I believe that women are many different types of people. There are brave women, there are cowardly women, there are altruistic women, there are selfish women. Most people are a combination of the same and I’ve had the advantage of having a large cast of characters, so I can show an Arya and a Sansa, I can show a Cersei and a Daenerys and a Brienne and make each one different from the other one so in that sense I believe in individual characters. Trying to make everyone different.
Q: I promised my readers, I would ask you when the next book is coming out.
GRRM: Haha, when I’m done.
We also spoke with “Game of Thrones” composer Ramin Djawandi.
How did you get involved to compose music for the show?
Ramin Djawandi: David and Dan actually reached out. They had heard some of my music and they thought I could be a good fit for the show. We met. They showed me the first two episodes, which blew me away of course. We met, we talked conceptually about what to do and we went from there.
Q: Tell me about your creative process?
Ramin Djawandi: I meet with them, we sit down, we discuss where the music starts and stops and dramatically what we want to say in each scene and then I sit down and write away meet with them and play what I came up with.
Q: There have been a lot of remixes to the music, can you reflect on that?
Ramin Djawandi: I just think it’s amazing what people have done with the themes and just taking it and stylistically pushing it to different directions, it’s amazing.
Q: How did you know this was your calling?
Ramin Djawandi: I was 4 years old maybe and, I don’t know. It was something that I always liked to do and the other thing was, I don’t write lyrics, so it was natural to go into film scoring which is mostly instrumentals.
