Before last Sunday’s “Game of Thrones” Season 4 twist involving her son, Cersei Lannister was slicing and dicing guests of King Joffrey’s wedding with her insults (some veiled, some not so much). One party guest, however, served back as good as he got – Pedro Pascal’s Prince Oberyn Martell.
After running into Cersei and her dad, Tywin Lannister, Oberyn referred to her as the less-than-royal, “former queen regent,” and introduced her to his lover as the now “Lady Cersei.” After that, he once again confirmed he was in the capitol over the death of his sister, Elia Martell, who he believes was murdered by The Mountain, under Tywin’s orders.
“Game of Thrones” Season 4 newcomer Pedro Pascal discussed his character’s mudslinging and what’s next.
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AccessHollywood.com: How much fun was it to shoot your back and forth with Cersei and Tywin?
Pedro Pascal: I think that’s what’s so exciting about Oberyn is he’s a character that is willing to go there with Cersei and Tywin – people that everyone fears so much they wouldn’t dare look at them wrong. I don’t only look at them wrong, but I like, wag my a** in their face and ask them to challenge it and me. I kind of demand it in my calculating way of bringing out a truth of why I’m there. And, I have to say, that it isn’t a strategy. It really truly is that Oberyn does not fear them. And that was really intense for me… because I watch the show, and I was in the middle of watching Season 3 when I had an audition for it, and I, as an audience member, feared those characters very much. And then, [on the show,] I found myself in the position of stepping up to them at their royal wedding, at the wedding that they’re paying for – Tywin’s grandson and her son, and being like, ‘Yeah, hey. I’m here and what are you gonna do about it?’
Access: Stepping into the fire.
Pedro: Open your mouth lion, I’ll stick my head in.
Access: Going forward, where does Oberyn fit into things with the Lannisters reeling from Joffrey’s death? Oberyn is there on his own mission. What’s next for him?
Pedro: After [Episode] 2, I think that everything is kind of in question. Anything is possible. An event like that happens that early into the season, you just kind of can’t know what’s next, who is in danger because of it, who is responsible. It’s like a bomb that goes off at the very, very beginning of something and all of the remnants… get to stick around, and Oberyn just sort of has this – within the aftermath — he has more opportunity to like continue his agenda in the chaos of Joffrey’s obvious murder.
Access: Who do you think killed Joffrey? It’s a real whodunit at the end of 2 [for non-book readers], the way that it’s set up.
Pedro: So, he like chokes on some pigeon pie, right? So maybe, it was the cook.
Access: After he drinks out of the cup he starts choking.
Pedro: After he drinks out of the cup, but he’s still be eating some pie. … Maybe it was the Lannisters’ royal head cook who just had enough of feeding that little sh** (laughs), and [thought], ‘You know what? I’m gonna put it in your wedding cake you little bastard!’
Access: But then they would kill poor Margaery.
Pedro: You know what? That’s war (laughs).
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Access: You and Lena have a real friendship. We saw fun Instagram photos with you two. What kind of fun stuff do you get to do off set?
Pedro: We’re in really cool locations in Belfast. We get to go to like some cool pubs.
Access: Lena is very funny.
Pedro: She’s hilarious. She’s very, very witty and she was a lot of fun to be around and she was very kind to me and we got along really well and we hung out in Belfast and the cast did a lot of hanging out — you know, just like dinners and some drinks and socializing. … I know that, for me, it was my first time in [Northern] Ireland, it was my first time in Croatia, and so I was around a bunch of fun people and… we just hung out.
Access: I’ve got a question about bringing Oberyn to life. Did they give you a brief on what kind of accent they wanted you to do when you auditioned for Oberyn?
Pedro: They did not, actually.
Access: So you got to come up with yourself.
Pedro: I kind of just came up with it myself for the audition
Access: And what were you thinking when you did that? You wanted it to be exotic to them?
Pedro: I think so, probably. I wanted him to sound ‘other,’ you know? And I didn’t think that that would make too much sense with an American accent. So, I think that it was important that a foreign element be introduced into this world and that it look different, it sound different, and I kind of started with the way he would speak and then, of course, the design team takes it from there in terms of the entire package of what Oberyn looks like.
“Game of Thrones” continues Sundays at 9 PM ET/PT on HBO.
— Jolie Lash
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