‘Game Of Thrones’: Cunningham On Davos & Bradley On Samwell

The odds are stacked against Ser Davos Seaworth at Castle Black in “Game of Thrones.” 

Liam Cunningham’s character is currently holed up in a room with a small group of men from the Night’s Watch, Ghost, and the body of Jon Snow. Knowing that Alliser Thorne and the men who now follow him will kill them when they open the door (or when it’s broken down), there are only two people that could aid Davos and the men in the room with survival – Dolores Edd, who left early on in the first episode of Season 6 to get the Wildlings to help them, or Melisandre, who was last seen looking crushed as she crawled into bed. Access asked Liam about what’s going on for Davos behind that door.

“I kind of hark back to, I think it was Season 3, when Stannis locked me up and he comes down to see me to run something by me, and I don’t give him the answer that he wants to hear. I tell him to examine his conscience, like Davos does, and Stannis looks in and goes, ‘You don’t really have much regard for your own life, do you?’ And he says,  ‘Not really.’ And that’s kind of the way I viewed it, what’s going on behind the door,” Liam said. “These guys are — it’s like I said in the scene. I said, ‘I’ve come across these men all my life,’ he said. ‘I know exactly what they’re thinking and what they’re going to do. We need to stall for time,’ and that’s why he sends off Dolores Edd. But it is though – it’s the last stand. He doesn’t know whether anybody’s going to save him or anybody’s going to come back in time to save the guys in the room.”

WATCH: Kristofer Hivju & Liam Cunningham On ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 6

Whether the Wildlings come to help, in honor of the man who helped them (Jon Snow), remains to be seen, especially since the freefolk have a greater foe than Alliser Thorne and the Night’s Watch to deal with – The Night’s King. 

“It’s the biggest threat ever,” Kristofer Hivju, who plays Tormund, told Access. 

WATCH: John Bradley: Which ‘Game Of Thrones’ Celeb Fan Is He Most Surprised By?

With Samwell, who has been instrumental in figuring out how to defeat White Walkers, now headed south, does that hurt the chances of the folks up North hoping to defeat the undead?

“We did see during ‘Hardhome’ that the biggest trick up Sam’s sleeve in dragonglass isn’t always the be all end all and they may need more than that,” John Bradley, who plays Samwell Tarly, told Access. “Sam thinks he’s solved the world’s problem in finding that out, but he actually hasn’t. The thing I like about Sam and knowledge is the fact that he’s beginning to understand his place in things now — that he can be of help to people.”

John said Sam is starting to understand that he doesn’t need to be an expert swordsman to help in the battles ahead. 

“He’s now realizing that his academia and his knowledge and his desire to gain an understanding of things may be just as invaluable a tool in the fight against these types of forces than anybody who can physically fight them. So he’s gone off. People may think it’s an academic indulgence to go off and learn at the Citadel for years and years and years, but he’s not doing it for the sake of it,” John said. “He’s doing it because he knows that that could actually be quite vital in the battle for the greater good. So he loves knowledge, but he’s also aware of it’s importance. And when Stannis said, ‘Keep reading,’ that was one of the biggest moments for Samwell because a guy who is such a military tactician — his experience of military tacticians have been people who completely shun academia and knowledge and think he has no place in it. The fact that he got this blessing from somebody like Stannis is really spurned him on to do everything that he can with his unique set of skills to help.”

“Game of Thrones” continues Sundays at 9 PM ET/PT on HBO.

— Jolie Lash