Carice van Houten plays Melisandre.
Q: What’s coming up for your character this season?
Well, we’ll see a little bit more of her homely side. See her having dinner, see her in her bathroom…
Q: Her softer side, then?
Yeah, sort of her more “human” side I would say, but there’s also stuff that you’re going to think is not that human. And then you’ll see us travel to the North.
Q: Do you ever read the script and say “Oh my God, how am I going to do this?”
Yes, all the time, yeah, yeah. But I have to find a way to make it. I keep thinking that she does it for a greater good, that’s the only way to deal with it, I guess.
Q: What do you do in your downtime on set?
Oh, I tweet. I tweet or I tweet. I play this stupid Bejewelled game!
Q: Of all the women in “Game of Thrones,” who is someone you believe should be on the throne?
Arya? Maybe? I want to say Arya. You know, she’s really young still, but there’s a lot of potential.
Q: And do people recognize you in the street?
Not really. I mean, in my own country, yes, but here on the street, no. I sometimes see people look and they’re like… you know, they’re like, I guess a little scared.
Q: Is it nice for you to be unrecognizable?
Yes, I love that.
Q: Do you have any funny crazy fan encounter stories?
Well, yes. Not encounters, so much but with Halloween people sent me their costumes in pictures. And there was one guy that was dressed up all in red and there was a guy in the black tights in between his legs. That was my favorite. Yeah, and sometimes I scare people on Twitter and say, you know, “be nice to me or I’ll make another shadow baby,” and they’re like, “Oh I’m sorry!” you know … It’s such an honor to be part of this. I’m surrounded by great artists, great writing, wonderful people. Just, I’m having so much fun, you know, I have a lot of great colleagues!
Q: So what are some of the challenges of your role?
To make her likable even though you hate her, you know? That’s hard, because, you know, it’s easy to make her into this wicked stepmother and I think it’s nice to have for her to have some sort of enigma that you feel like there’s something about her, we don’t know what it is, but there’s something about her.
