‘Game Of Thrones’: Liam Cunningham On Davos’ Next Move

“Game of Thrones” took a little break from King Stannis Baratheon in recent episodes, the character whose empty coffers are hindering his plans to take the Iron Throne.

But, last time the show checked in with Stannis’ side, Liam Cunningham’s Davos Seaworth had come up with a very bright idea as he sat with his young friend (and reading tutor) Shireen Baratheon. He had the youngster pen a letter to the Iron Bank of Braavos, the wealthiest organization around.

And it appeared that letter reached its target. This week’s “GoT” preview featured Mark Gatiss speaking with Stannis and Davos about money.

“He’s a hugely talented guy and he’s an absolute delight,” Liam told AccessHollywood.com of the “GoT” newcomer. “He’s a fantastic actor. … So to be in a scene with him was an absolute joy, an absolutely a privilege.”

In our latest “Got” Q&A, Liam previewed what’s to come as Davos and Stannis continue to work to regrow their forces and finances. And, with his Westeros storyline oftentimes just made up of Stephen’s Stannis, Liam’s Davos and Carice van Houten’s Melisandre, Liam shared with AccessHollywood.com a little insight into what it’s like on the set for the trio of actors.

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AccessHollywood.com: In Episode 3, your character gets a great idea.
Liam Cunningham:
With the help of Shireen.

Access: What can you hint at after [that moment]?
Liam:
There’s a eureka moment, with lovely Shireen, where the bank of Braavos is involved. … Stannis quite rightly says, ‘Who have we got on our side?’ and I point out a couple of the banner families, and he basically looks at me and goes, ‘That’s it? You need to redouble your efforts.’ However, with very little to go on, we’ve lost everything. We’ve lost… 30 ships that we got off Salladhor Saan. Our coffers are extremely diminished, so the only way to do this is to go to the people who finance the Lannisters, who are financing King’s Landing, and that involves getting in touch, somehow or other, with the big guns, with the Lehmans. … as in the bank that went bang here. Lehman Brothers. Goldman Sachs. That’s actually who we’re gonna have to go and see. Something’s gotta be done, so we’ll have to talk to the powers that be in Braavos, which is, of course, going to be one of the most impressive sights that we’ve seen on this show, and we’ve never seen it before.

Access: Your little trio (Stephen Dillane, who plays Stannis and Carice van Houten, who plays Melisandre) — you’re together all the time on this show. Do you ever get sick of each other?
Liam:
No, no. It’s the completely opposite. I’ve got history with Carice because we did a movie together. Four years ago now.

Access: Right before you started this [‘Black Butterflies,’ 2011].
Liam: Well, about a year before and talk about different. We were lovers in it and it was a feature film and based very much on a true story, about these two lovers. So it being a Dutch/German co-production, it didn’t leave a lot to the imagination, shall we say, so we were doing a bit of horizontal folk dancing in that one and then we moved from that to [this]. We both recommended each other at the [‘Game of Thrones’] audition, as well.

Access: So off set then – I know Carice is a singer/musician, do you guys jam?
Liam:
We’re both huge fans of music. I don’t play any music. I don’t have the discipline. I’d love to. I cannot understand why what’s in my head won’t come out [of] my fingers and people say it involves practice.

Access: I was gonna say.
Liam:
The practice thing’s the bit I’m not interested in. Everything else I like about it. But, she’s hugely talented, and she has great taste in music. She loves everything from The Beatles and classical to punk and everything. She’s really cool. I have her album. She’s really good. She let me hear it before they released it.

Access: And you and Stephen … do you say, play table tennis?
Liam:
We like to eat. We’re trying to find the best restaurants around Belfast and we go and eat together and we go and have a couple of drinks.

Access: Stephen is so great to watch as Stannis.
Liam:
He’s fantastic to watch. He’s fantastic and he doesn’t do the obvious. A lot of actors try and act and garner some sort of sympathy for their character. He doesn’t play that game.

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

Jolie Lash

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