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Popular character actors  Ian Beattie, Ian McElhinney and Roger Ashton-Griffiths are currently best known for their roles in Game of Thrones, respectively as Ser Barristan Selmy, Ser Meryn Trant and Lord Mace Tyrell. Nick Joy caught up with the erstwhile noblemen at SF Ball 23 to talk about… what else?… death!

Considering how many of his characters he has killed off in his series of Game of Thrones novels, I wonder if George R R Martin has conjured up an afterlife where recently dispatched nobles sit in session, complaining about their lot; a meeting of the King’s Landing Small Council for the stabbed, garrotted and exploded? If so, it might look a bit like this gathering round a table in the Grand Harbour Hotel in Southampton. Except that none of those here are bemoaning that they have all left the show, and they all have gone on to other big projects. Ian McElhinney was classic Star Wars character General Dodonna in Rogue One, Roger Ashton-Griffiths was in Tom Hardy’s new BBC drama Taboo and Ian Beattie is in an upcoming episode of Doctor Who…

Being killed in a spectacular way is an occupational hazard for anyone living in Westeros. Did you get much warning before you met your maker or did you find out rather late in the day?

Ian Beattie: Well, you get a phone call at the start of the season to say that Valar Morghulis (all men must die) and all that nonsense, and you can’t say ‘I’m in the shower, can you call back next season?’ You know it’s a big phone call and then I got sent the script after.

But I’d already worked out what was coming. I knew I was going to Braavos and I knew who was already there and it has been let slip to me in Season 2 that Arya was going to kill me. So, I knew for three years without being able to tell anybody, and when I read my death scene I think it’s safe to say that even by Game of Thrones standards it was pretty spectacular. [Arya blinds him with a knife before slitting his throat.]

Ian McElhinney: In my case I was slightly frustrated. The first thing you get is the schedule, and as I had read the books I was anticipating that in Season 5 Barristan had a lot more to do. So, I thought to myself: ‘Great, I’m going to have a busy time this year. I’m going to have more weeks than normal.’ Then when I got the schedule, I had less weeks, so I thought ‘There’s something wrong here.’ I went in to the line producer and said: ‘I have a suspicion I’m being written out – can you confirm it?’ And he looked like a rabbit caught in headlights and just said: ‘That’s way above my pay grade.’

And by the time they rang me to confirm this, I’d already read the scripts and knew the nature of the death. So, if I’m honest, I was a little pissed off because I felt it hadn’t followed the proper order.

I was also disappointed because from the books I could see that Barristan had an interesting journey and I wondered where it was going to lead. Whilst the death was interesting I didn’t want it then, I wanted it later. In some ways it was a good death because there was a lot of fighting, but because it was the first time you saw me fight it might have been nice to survive the first one and die in a later one.

Ian B: But he’s over it now!

I feel bad for bringing it up now!

Roger Ashton-Griffiths: What it means is that you were out of touch in your fighting. Perhaps you should have done some more training?!

Ian M: I was so efficient that I should have swung through that

Roger, out of everyone, your death was the most… explosive. You were engulfed by wildfire as the Sept of Baelor exploded at the beginning of the Season 6 finale

Roger: There’s a famous quote [attributed to Benjamin Franklin] that there are only two things certain in life… death and income taxes. Well, there’s a third thing and that’s you’ll get a character death if you appear in Game of Thrones! So I got the call – ‘Hey Roger, it’s Dan [D B Weiss – co-showrunner].’ And I thought: ‘Oh shit, here it comes.’

Yes, I was disappointed because I thought I would have lasted a bit longer, but it wasn’t to be. But it was a good end – the character went with his family, which is what I think he would have wanted. And it was extraordinarily hard work because it was tense and emotional. Big scenes like that take a long time to shoot because of handling the people, so we were tense and emotional for about four days. I was pleased with how it came out.

Ian B: I think it’s a common factor for every actor who leaves Game of Thrones that it’s a huge wrench. It’s a huge departure and you really feel like a bird flying away from the nest, your family.

Roger: There isn’t a clubhouse that you can still go to – once you’re out, you’re out. They don’t phone you any more – you’re gone.

Ian B: And that’s why it’s such a wrench; because it’s been such an incredible ride

Ian M: You work with all these people for years and then you don’t see them again.

There’s a long tail on this show too. You’re here today at this convention because of the popularity of Game of Thrones. You were all in The Tudors, but you don’t go to Tudors conventions, do you?

Ian B: That’s because The Tudors wasn’t the best show ever made. Game of Thrones is… so far… in my book.

Ian M: Well… you can debate that one up and down, but the bottom line is that Game of Thrones has a huge following. From that point of view it’s great for all of us that we’re fortunate enough to have been in it because we become the beneficiaries of that following. What’s nice is that although we never all worked together while on the show, I’ve met loads of cast at comicons that I’d never actually met before. Ian and I only had one scene together.

Roger: As actors, we’re a bit like annual plants; we’re all foliage, but with no root. But that’s ok, we make a good garden when we all mix together.

Ian B: When you meet an actor that you’ve never met before – I met Kris [Kristofer Hivju] at the airport in Belfast last year – and it’s like you’re part of the family. You immediately go over and hug them.

Roger: I had exactly the same experience with Oona Chaplin [Talisa Stark]. We never met on the show and then we were both on [Taboo] together.

How does Game of Thrones compare in scale to other projects you’ve worked on?

Ian B: Nothing whatsoever that I’ve ever done measures up to it.

I did a film called Alexander [directed by Oliver Stone] and that was large-scale, but in terms of Game of Thrones each season got bigger and bigger and we realised we were in something huge.

It brought responsibility as well as a huge sense of pleasure because everyone I’ve known who worked on Game of Thrones, without exception, was extraordinarily passionate about the show. They love it. They love doing what they do. Everybody that I met and worked with. And believe me, the crew were the ones that worked the hardest. If I’m in make-up at 6 o’clock the crew are in at 4 o’clock to get ready. There’s a huge pride about the show. I’ve never been involved in anything like it before and I would be surprised if I’m involved in anything like it again. It was something extraordinary and we knew that when we were doing it.

Ian M: Because of the nature of the work, the amount of prep that is done by others before we get anywhere near it is extraordinary. When you go in, you know you’re going in to something that has been thoroughly thought through and that nothing is happening arbitrarily. That gives you a great sense of confidence because you’re surrounded by people who really know what they’re about and that if ever you’re in doubt there will be somebody there to stop you being in doubt.

Ian B: Roger, how did you put it yesterday?

Roger: With respect to the Hibernian contingent, it’s the IRA – the Intention, the Resource and the Ability. And it’s one of those rare jobs where all three things meet. They really want to do it well – actors and crew. It’s very rare to have all three things coming together like that and it produces something as close to perfection that… for now… you can expect to see.

Ian B: In Game of Thrones, in my opinion, the casting has been just about perfect and when you see an actor in a role you couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it, and certainly the fans seem to have appreciated that.

Roger: On the other hand, I was cast fairly late in the show – Season 4 – by which time a lot of people had read the books and had a pretty clear idea of what Mace looked like. There was a pretty mixed reaction to my casting but they seem to have got over it.

Ian M: But that’s like people saying ‘James Bond shouldn’t be blond’.

Roger: When you give a baby a name, sometimes people don’t take to it, but six weeks later and you can’t imagine it being called anything else.

Ian M: And there’s also some parts where they were played by different people and I’ve never heard any feedback on that either.

I know this might make you blush, Ian, but your casting as Meryn Trant was perfect, and that can be measured by the way your character really got under our skin. We learned to hate him, like we did with Joffrey, and were so glad when he died.

Ian B: One of the reasons I love attending conventions is meeting fans, because I’m a huge fan of the show myself. People who watch Game of Thrones are smart enough to tell the difference between an actor and the role they’re playing. I always receive the compliment ‘I really hated your character.’ And that to me that was a huge compliment because it means that I’ve done my job, and that’s the job I was there for.

He was great fun to play for the first four and a half seasons. It was only those last two episodes when we saw his private side [a penchant for beating child prostitutes] that it was really upsetting for me. But he was great fun to play. I was probably luckier than Ian and Roger in this regard as I got about a lot more.

Ian M: My world, for a large part of the series, was very small, just the Daenerys world. But in the first season I was in and around King’s Landing. I met more actors in that period because we were mostly filming in Belfast at that stage. Ever there after we were a very small team of people in terms of the acting cast.

Roger: As actors we’re very footloose and fancy free. We don’t see people again. Apart from the Purple Wedding when most of us were together, I haven’t seen Peter Dinklage [Tyrion], Conleth [Hill – Varys] and it goes on and on. Those people are out of my life

Ian M: You have to learn as an actor to be pragmatic about these sort of things.

It’s a bit like the summer holiday romance. You can be every bonded for that short, intense period of time and then it’s gone and you’re on to the next. That’s what’s great about conventions like this – you can maintain the bond. Normally it’s “great to be with you, great to enjoy the time” and… you’re gone.

Roger: And occasionally, “Thank God this job is over and I never have to see you again!”

Has it been gratifying seeing some of the younger actors like Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke growing up into the movie stars they now are?

Ian B: I never got to work with Kit, even though I met him a lot at the awards and premieres, but he’s a lovely, cracking bloke. Emilia Clarke is gorgeous inside and out, every which way a stunning girl.

But the ones that were fun for me to watch growing were Masie [Williams – Arya] and Sophie [Turner – Sansa] because I actually spent more of my filming time with them than any of the other kids on the show – and they were kids. My first day’s filming on Game of Thrones was with Miltos [Yerolemou – Syrio] and Maisie, and my last day was also with Maisie, so that was a nice closing of that circle. And to see those young ladies turn into these beautiful women and fantastic actresses has been one of the most gratifying things

Ian M: Funnily enough, last night I went back to my hotel room, flicked on my TV and there she was, Maisie Williams in a film called The Falling on BBC2. And I thought to myself ‘Jesus, Christ, it’s Arya!’

Since leaving Game of Thrones, both Ians have also filmed Northern Ireland conflict drama The Journey with the much missed John Hurt. Game of Thrones returns (without them) later this year. We anticipate that further cast members will be following their characters into the Game of Thrones departure lounge…

With thanks to Andrew, Anne, B and the crew at SF Ball, raising funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust.