7. Lots Of Weather We're Having Today
Episodes: Multiple Commentators: Multiple The mention of the weather while shooting "Game of Thrones" is not brought up just once, but is instead a recurring theme across episodes for a season that was shot mostly in either Belfast, Northern Ireland or Malta, which both just happened to be experiencing the worst weather in decades during filming. The basic rule of thumb for viewers seems to be that if it appeared hot on screen, it was actually freezing and if it appeared blustery and cold, it was actually sweltering. While the scenes for King's Landing were shot on the enviously beautiful isle of Malta (fun fact: Illyrio's house was actually the palace of the Prince of Malta), mostly every outdoor scene including Daenerys's marches in and around Vaes Dothrak were shot in Belfast, which, even if wasn't experiencing its coldest winter since 1982 (it was), still only averages a high of 59 degrees Fahrenheit
at its warmest. Keep that in mind when you see poor Emilia Clarke riding through the vast Dothraki Sea in only one layer of clothing. Interior scenes shot in Belfast didn't escape a great freeze either as Grand Maester Pycelle's (Julian Glover) expository monologue in "Fire and Blood" (what Benioff and Weiss describe as his "Keyzer Soze moment") had to be corrected in post to remove Glover's breath as the sound stage was just a hair above 40 degrees. But how about those men of the Nights Watch, huh? It certainly seems like they had to endure some brutal cold. Well, my friends, that illusion comes courtesy of a little trick that actors like to call "acting." The conversation between Jon Snow and Sam Tarly (John Bradley) in "Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things" appears to be taking place between two men freezing their asses off, but filming was actually taking place inside a large set called The Paint Hall, with Kit Harrington enclosed by lights for close ups nicknamed "Witches Candles." He describes the temperature as "absolutely boiling" and he and Bradley had to constantly be cleaned of their sweat yet pretend to be numb to the bone. Oh, and the lovely Dothraki wedding by the sea? What you're seeing is a re-creation of the original set that was completely obliterated by the worst storm Malta had seen in 20 years.