Her husband is dead, her children are scattered, her cause crumbling. She has betrayed her allies in the vain hope of saving her daughters.
And, not to give too much away, Catelyn Stark is centre stage in the bloody climax to season three of epic HBO fantasy Game of Thrones – the ”Red Wedding”.
For Stark, played by Irish actor Michelle Fairley, moments of quiet happiness are few and far between while working.
But as an actor, Fairley finds them walking onto set every day, in the small things. The fish sigils carved into columns in a castle hall; the cups, the plates, the knives and forks; the carefully selected colour palettes of the costumes, which reflect the homes and the lighting.
”The quality of craftsmanship is extraordinary,” Fairley says, ”down to the flowers that you have on a table – they are specific to the region – is it near water, does it get a lot of light They think of absolutely everything. When you walk in and see the sets, you are completely blown away. It’s an absolute delight.”
HBO has thrown wads of cash at Game of Thrones, filming in exotic locations and building massive, intricate sets. It was a fairly safe bet as the books of the series were already bestsellers, but the production quality has helped it find an audience outside geekdom.
The production values also help Fairley as an actor, she says. ”You become immersed. You walk into a complete world and then it’s you as an actor within that world. It’s great. I love it.”
Stark’s would be one of the most tragic storylines in Game of Thrones. But Fairley says she ”totally relishes it”.
”She is a mother first and foremost, and she is a grieving widow, and she is from a very honourable family so she has a very strong core of morality. But she is flawed as a human being as well. Her wish is to keep her children alive and get them back under her cloak and possibly never let them out of there again. That’s why she maintains a breath in her lungs.”
The show gained early notoriety for its graphic pulchritude. Naked (usually female) flesh spilled into scene after scene, sometimes as part of the plot, sometimes as titillating wallpaper behind a long soliloquy (one critic dubbed such scenes ”sexposition”).
But, Fairley argues, Thrones has a strong feminist core.
”The women in this world are very strong,” she says. ”Whether it’s fantasy, whatever it is, the female characters in here are vital because they’re a good foil for the male.”
The women are both powerful and different to the men, she says. They are ”queens, mothers, young girls fighting for their independence”.
”It’s survival, it’s about honour, where does your moral centre lie, how do you keep going in a world like this and what spurs you on I think the women have to be smarter, faster than the men. They cannot just be a whore, a mother, a queen. They are so multi-layered and they have to be able to play these [political] games.”
Ad Feedback
Fairley loves that the show has casted actors for more than their smooth foreheads.
”You want to see interesting faces that move,” she says. ”There is a side of this business which is real fantasy. But you need to go out and touch the world and smell it all and get dirty. You need to make mistakes, you need to grow older disgracefully. I think people want truth, actually.”
Sometimes the grittiness of Thrones is a challenge.
”There are some times [on set] you go, ‘Oh god almighty, here we go.’ There were a couple of scenes last year where not only was it at night, and it was in a mucky, mucky field, but they decided to put on the rain machines as well.
”By the time you get the horses through it and then 300 extras and supporting cast, and then you have to walk through it yourself and you’re like, squelch, squelch.
”But actually, that adds to your movement and the way that you’ll eventually speak the line and the toughness of the world. It’s much better fun, because you’re not mollycoddled and it shows that these people have to get into this world.
”There are times that you go, ‘The idea, the thought of this is exhausting, how am I going to get through it’ But if you love something and you’re passionate about it, you’ll do it.”
Fairley is half speaking about herself, and half as Catelyn Stark. And that’s the point – this show is where the two become one.
”Those things … are just part of the reality of it.”
Game of Thrones (season three), Monday, Soho 8.30pm.
– Sydney Morning Herald
