Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand (Macall B. Polay/HBO)
Keisha Castle-Hughes’ Obara Sand doesn’t just wield the same weapon as her dad, Oberyn Martell. She fights like him too.
On Sunday night’s “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” episode of “Game of Thrones,” the Sand Snakes came spear to sword with Jaime Lannister and Bronn of the Blackwater, and Keisha told Access Hollywood she actually watched some of Pedro Pascal’s training tapes as she prepared for the sequence.
“I started training pretty much as soon as I got the role in the martial art of Wushu, which kind of lent itself to both the physical aspects of Obara and sort mental meditational aspects of her,” Keisha told Access Hollywood.
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And we mentioned that Wushu was the style Pedro told us he trained in for Oberyn’s big fight last year in the ring against the Mountain.
“Exactly, and so I did lots of very similar training to Pedro,” she said. “I’ve watched lots of videos of him training as well, but I’ve watched that scene of him and The Mountain fight so many times it’s ridiculous. I used to watch it every single day, because I wanted so much to make sure that — this is the man that trained her, so it was important that they moved in the same way.”
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When it came to actually filming the fight sequence between Sand Snakes and the two men from Westeros, there was a lot of choreography.
“You’ve got the three Sand Snakes, Jaime, Bronn and Myrcella, so there was a lot of coordination involved. I have the seven-foot spear, Nymeria has the 12-foot bullwhip and then swords and then Tyene has the double daggers and then on top of that, Jaime Lannister has his golden hand and a massive sword and Bronn has his incredible sword, and so there was a lot of coordination around,” Keisha told Access.
As for why Obara wanted to take on Jaime in the fight? It was just in her, Keisha said.
“Obara’s the type of person that’s decided like, ‘I want the Lannister,’ and you guys can just have the [others],” she laughed.
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When it actually came down to facing off against Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in character though, Keisha admitted she was a little intimidated.
“Once we got there and Nikolaj and I were practicing together — Nikolaj is a very beautiful man and he is also one of the leads of one of the biggest shows in the world — I was like, ‘Oh wow, this just got really, real.’ It’s a bit different when you’re doing it with a Bulgarian stunt guy who can take a hit if you slip… I was like, ‘What if I actually cut Nikolaj?’ I was like, ‘This is way too much pressure all of a sudden,'” she said.
A fan of the show since the beginning, Keisha said working opposite Nikolaj took some getting used to.
“I honestly think it took me like two weeks of working with Nikolaj every day — like rehearsing with Nikolaj every day — before I got over the fact that he was Jaime Lannister. Nikolaj also looks like he has been drawn by someone. He is so beautiful. I was like, ‘He looks like Prince Charming,'” she said, with a laugh.
As for what’s next for the Sand Snakes, who have been taken into custody, don’t expect Obara or her sisters to give up.
“It’s three women who feel like they’ve got nothing to lose and who feel like they’re untouchable, so it’ll be interesting to see where they go.”
“Game of Thrones” airs Sundays at 9 PM ET/PT on HBO.
— Jolie Lash
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