‘Game Of Thrones’: Eugene Simon On The New Lancel Lannister

Eugene Simon as Lancel Lannister (HBO)

Once the young cousin Cersei had inappropriate relations with in “Game of Thrones” Season 2, Lancel Lannister is now all grown up and a serious threat.

Since he first reappeared in the Season 5 opener, apologizing for his past actions and revealing he is a Sparrow, Eugene Simon’s character Lancel has furthered his commitment to his religion as a member of the Faith Militant.

He was a big part of the raid on Littlefinger’s brothel last week, and in this past Sunday night’s episode, after Cersei allowed the High Sparrow to bring back the Faith Militant, Lancel took center stage. He had an emblem of his faith carved into his forehead before heading out and taking Queen Margaery’s brother, Ser Loras Tyrell, into custody.

PHOTOS: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 5: Even More Scenes From Episode 4 — ‘Sons Of The Harpy’

Although driven by their faith on the show, are the Faith Militant thugs?

“The Faith of the Seven — the Faith Militant — would claim to have the gods on their side and therefore be morally sound, but a lot of them are born out of poverty,” Eugene explained. “That’s the unfortunate truth. The members are born out of poverty and are looking for an excuse to try to get some sort of power to be empowered and I think that if it means following the gods, then so be it. So a great deal of them are thugs, really. I don’t think Lancel is a thug, solely. I think he’s certainly violent and I think that what we can now see, from Episode 4… [is] that these sort of institutions do always tend to develop a militant wing. They just do. It’s just their nature because they believe that they are totalitarian and therefore right.

PHOTOS: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Characters Who Have Died On The Show

“And I think that, as time will go by, you [will] probably sort of see and understand more and more that the Faith is really born out of disparity, because this whole time we’ve been watching the aristocracy, or at least the [people closest to them – everyone] from Davos Seaworth to Cersei and in between — living their lives, but the common man has sort of been forgotten, really, the bottom feeders of society,” Eugene continued. “And this is a side of ‘Game of Thrones’ we haven’t seen yet, which is its citizens, its King’s Landing citizens. And it’s dirty and it’s ugly and it’s impoverished and it’s desperate, so it’s a whole new side to the show, I think.”

And the Faith Militant – as exemplified by them turning down the King’s request to see the High Sparrow in Sunday’s episode – take their cues from a higher power over the royals and nobles of Westeros.

“They don’t recognize them as an authority, because they’re not an authority. In the eyes of the gods, we are all equal. … I don’t know if it’s a communist ideology, but… the ideology based in equality is there, and so therefore yes, anyone who steps out of line with our belief in the gods and their writings and their scripture is punishable the same as any other man or woman,” Eugene said. “And what is so intimidating about the Militant is that anyone can join.”

The High Sparrow (Jonathan Price) serves as a guide.

WATCH: Tom Wlaschiha On  Returning To ‘Game Of Thrones’ As Jaqen H’ghar

“We rely very heavily on the advice and the insight of the High Sparrow to know what direction we need to start going in, but the thing about the High Sparrow — he’s sort of a genius really,” Eugene said. “Even I don’t fully understand his motives, or his methods,” Eugene said. “He might himself be a corrupt individual, but the thing is we believe in him, or rather, they believe in him, the Sparrows believe in him, because he is able to unite people. He’s rather like… Ciaran Hinds, rather like the King Beyond the Wall, [in] that he’s able to unite people. He has that gift.”

Eugene first found out he was returning to the show as he was driving through Europe last year, helping his mother with an errand.

“I was just in my car and I got this text — it was so casual — from my agent, saying, ‘Great news, hun. They want you back for a good number of episodes of ‘Game of Thrones’ this season and they are going to need you to shave your hair off.’ And I just went ‘Yes!’ because the shaving my hair off thing was actually a great pleasure, because if you do something like that, your whole world becomes about your job and that’s great. I love that. My world is my job and because my hair was shorn… I was literally working from that moment onwards. So it felt just sensational. It felt great.”

Eugene Simon as Lancel Lannister (Helen Sloan/HBO)

To play the new faith-dedicated Lancel meant Eugene had to keep his hair short. And since the actor kept his “GoT” return a secret from friends, Eugene’s look while prepping and later, while filming the HBO show, left pals wondering if the English actor was OK.

“I didn’t talk about it at all. I wanted to keep it kind of to myself and when I came back with no hair, I did get a lot of questions as to why and why it was I had bits missing from my scalp, whereas there was hair in other places. And people thought, ‘Oh God, Eugene, he’s had a sort of break down. So I started wearing beanies for the first time in my life. I had not had a break down, I was merely doing my job,” the actor said, with a laugh.

Another person who rejoined the show in Season 5 is Tom Wlaschiha, who plays Jaqen, and the actors caught up at the show’s premiere in San Francisco, where they discussed their shared experience.

“We had a good laugh about that actually,” Eugene said. “We were keeping face, but I think said to him, ‘When did you find out?’ And he told me, and then I told him how I found out and then we both suddenly realized that we were on the same page and suddenly we were mutually excited ’cause we were suppressing it, and then suddenly we found out that we discovered that we found out the same way and went’ ‘Oh!'”

“It’s an extraordinary feeling when you find out your coming back, especially to a show as wonderful as this,” he said.

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

— Jolie Lash