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New Prince of Dorne Toby Osmond reveals unscripted moment in ‘Game Of Thrones’ Bran the Broken scene


Charismatic British actor Toby Osmond has been on the UK indie film scene for a few years now, which means Yahoo Movies UK has crossed paths with him on several occasions.

He’d told us – off-the-record – that he was going to be in the final season of Game Of Thrones, but he didn’t hint at what he’d be doing. For all we knew, he was the third shadow from the left in the Battle Of Winterfell.

So, you can imagine our surprise when he popped up in the most significant scene in the entire series. But, as it turns out, there was a surprise for Toby in that scene, too.

“The moment where Tobias Menzies bangs the sword on the marquee pole, that was an accident,” Osmond tells Yahoo Movies UK. “And then he just went with it. That’s the mark of a good actor, when it makes your character look more like an idiot, but you’re like ‘This is the character man, I’m just going to embrace it.”

We spoke to Osmond about what it’s like to join one of your favourite shows, and how it feels to go viral.

Yahoo Movies UK: So, you told your close friends that you were going to be in Game Of Thrones, but you didn’t tell anyone anything else about the role. I guessed that you’d be Dornish, but I didn’t guess that you’d be a Dornish Prince in the most significant scene in the series…

Well, first off it was fantastic to find that I wasn’t cut. I know someone who had a decent role in Wolf Hall, fantastic mini-series. She had a long role on that, that was entirely cut out. Every single scene. She had a whole story arc across every episode.

So I was perfectly aware that I should not count my chickens before they’d hatched. Obviously, like any actor, it would have been nice if the entire scene had been constructed out of extreme close-ups of my face.

[Laughs] It was just such a fantastic experience, it was an honour. And it was actually quite emotional for me, not just the normal emotions. My father got me into Game Of Thrones, and he sadly passed away.

He passed away after the first season had finished airing, but before the second season had started. He got into it before I’d heard about it at all. He watched the first episode, and said, ‘We should watch this together. I think you’ll enjoy this.’

So I was watching it with him, my stepmother Polly and my sister Beth, who was very young at the time, so young she probably shouldn’t have watched it. And I just remember that last scene, where Jaime Lannister pushes Bran out of the window in the tower and that line ‘The things I do for love.’ I was hooked. I loved it. I didn’t know I’d be in it!

So I felt like I was carrying the torch a little bit. My dad got me into good quality films as well.

I take a lot of stuff from my mum and my father. I was brought up by my mother until I was eighteen, then I moved in with my father. My mum got me into geeky stuff, like Star Trek, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show for some reason, that sort of stuff.

My dad got me into The Godfather and The Omen, I remember watching that when I was far too young with my dad and I was absolutely terrified. IT as well, Stephen King – my mum hates horror, so my dad was getting me into all of these horror films. TV as well, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Wire

For the eulogy at his funeral, I rattled off a list of suggested viewing for the audience. Game Of Thrones was on it. I quoted The Godfather. God, I didn’t think I’d be talking about this in the interview, but in the last part of the eulogy, I quoted a scene from The Wire, when Marlo has Proposition Joe killed – such a beautiful scene, so moving, you need to look at the script, I’m not going to say it now because it’ll be a tear-jerker for me. It’s very poignant.

That’s how much he cared about film, and art as well, the artistic side of things, so he got me into that as well.

Did you have mixed emotions when you were filming?

It wasn’t mixed emotions in bad way, it was mixed emotions in a good way. I felt I got more from it in that way. I felt like I was honouring my father. Not to sound cheesy or cliched.

My stepmother sent me a text [Toby pauses for a moment] God, I didn’t think I’d get emotional in an interview with you, Sam.

[Toby composes himself] My stepmother sent me a text when the episode aired, saying how many people had messaged her to say how much I looked like my father on the screen. And how pleased he would have been.

I felt really proud and happy, and I’m a fan – I’ve followed it since the beginning. It’s that perfect combination of quality, intelligence, political intrigue, and that stuff my mum got me into – the first book my mum read with me was The Hobbit. It’s a mishmash of my mother and father all in one, it’s perfect.

The council decides (credit: HBO)

You’ve been a fan for a while, and the ending has been a bit divisive – not you, everyone agrees on you, and you’ve become a bit of a meme, but we’ll talk about that later – but how did you feel about the ending?

I loved it, but I’m biased. I think the big stars who’ve been there since the beginning, if they’re also fans, maybe they can be detached from it. Or maybe they can’t, maybe they’re just used to it. But for me, I was so in shock and so excited to be in it, I’m not objective about it.

There’s one or two things [I would change]. Yes, there should have been more shots of Toby Osmond [laughs] or maybe I wanted to see more of this, or of that, but I really enjoyed it.

I went to a fan screening event to watch it air live. Everyone was saying ‘You must be excited’ and I was just putting a shield around my heart. I didn’t know if I’d be cut, I didn’t know how much you’d see of me, so I was fucking nervous. I was trying to shut it down so I didn’t get too excited.

Of course, it airs in the UK at 2am on the Sunday night, and my female friend and I were a little bit merry – it was my birthday party, it was my birthday on the 20th which was the UK air date. I live in an East London warehouse, so it was five other people’s birthdays – people who live there, or used to live there. There’s a big community feeling, like a cult!

It was a massive birthday party weekend on the Saturday, so on the Sunday we were feeling so awful we needed hair of the dog. So, by the time it got to Sunday night at 2am, I’d forgotten it was about to air. I hadn’t kept track of time. If you had asked me, I’d be saying ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to Belfast tomorrow, it’s on tomorrow night.’ I’d completely forgotten it was live at 2am.

Where there other cast and crew at this fan event?

There were some other cast and crew, two of the direwolves were there, which is lovely. Summer and Grey Wind.

It looks like you’ve struck up a friendship with them, from Instagram anyway…

Yeah, which is good because actually they sensed how drunk I was at one point, and one of them started howling. I stepped away, because I didn’t want to get killed by a direwolf, I’ve only just been in Game Of Thrones! They knew I was going to incite a Dornish uprising.

So, how did you find out it was airing in the UK?

At around 2.30, 2.45 in the morning, my phone started going. And as soon as I saw the light on it, I was like ‘F***! Game Of Thrones is on! My scene’s on! F***!’ And this nervousness hit me, and I picked up my phone and my good friend Scott, said ‘Mate! Sh**!’

And I said ‘You need to tell me how much I’m on screen, and what I say, right now, and you need to do that immediately, please, now.’ And he did, he was like ‘Yeah mate, you’re on it – not actually sure if you spoke on screen, I did hear your voice say ‘Aye.’’

So I said, ‘Okay, but you saw me, right?’ And he said ‘Oh yeah, I definitely saw you.’ I said ‘Okay, did I throw some cool shady looks or whatever?’ And he said ‘Yeah, yeah, definitely.’ And I was all ‘thank God.’

I was a bit like ‘Will it be enough?’ Because you never believe anyone, people are always being supportive and they’ll big you up ‘Oh, you were fantastic, darling.’ And then you see it and you realise it was the worst performance of your life.

People were sending me recordings they’d made on their phones. The next evening, I’d turned my phone upside down, but it was on a glass table, and I get different colours for each notification, so when it was airing in the UK, my phone looked like a disco. When my scene was on it was changing colour three times a second, so I had to put it on the floor because it was distracting people.

What lines of dialogue got cut?

I can’t talk about the script, contractually, but I can talk about what I did say – ‘Aye’ and ‘All hail Bran the Broken.’

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The security around that episode must have been insane.

Yeah, totally. The security was so tight, we weren’t given the whole script of the episode, no f***ing way. We literally just saw that scene.

You did say ‘aye’ but we didn’t see you – I was waiting for you to appear again when they panned around everyone…

So was I. So was I, Sam. It was the back of Peter Dinklage’s head, or probably Paul, who was Peter Dinklage’s double. At the screening, I was watching it with the lady friend I was with, and we just watched that camera pan off my f****ing face and onto the back of Peter Dinklage’s head – or Paul’s, whoever it was – but then we heard the ‘aye’ in my voice, and we got excited ‘Oh! It’s me!’

I was hoping that on the ‘All hail Bran the Broken’ they might have a bit on me. My hope was that my costume was so fabulous and beautiful, and everyone else is wearing greys, blacks, grey-blue, steel grey or whatever. Robin Arryn, who’s Lord Of The Vale now, had the second most fabulous costume, colour-wise. But there’s me in gold and peach brocade, with a snake-headed scimitar and sh**, just lounging around.

So I had that in my favour, but also, when you’re in a scene with that many a-listers. It’s such a privilege to be there, but you know who the audience want to see. It’s not the new guy.

Who knows? You did turn into a meme, it was enough to make an impact on the fans. How does it feel to go viral?

It’s nuts! I’ve now got a social media manager and a PR person, and they’ll say when I’ve got fan messages. I got my first request for an autograph, and I didn’t know you were supposed to say ‘Okay, can you send a self-addressed stamped envelope?’ Because I’m like ‘Of course, I’ll send you an autographed photograph! Where do you live? America? Oh brilliant! This is going to cost me, isn’t it?’ [laughs]. But what a privilege.

Are there any details that fans would be surprised to find out happened on the day?

The moment where Tobias Menzies bangs the sword on the marquee pole, that was an accident. And then he just went with it. That’s the mark of a good actor, when it makes your character look more like an idiot, but you’re like ‘This is the character man, I’m just going to embrace it.’

Maisie Williams stuck her tongue out at me, trying to make me laugh on camera, maybe it was between takes. And I was like ‘Oh my god, Arya just cheekily stuck her tongue out at me!’

What kind of direction were you given?

D&D, Dan and David, they direct one episode a season, and it was that one. So I had Dan giving me f****ing direction while this camera’s in close-up on me. Both of them are so down to earth, softly spoken, but also love to party. It’s hard to think of a nicer type of person. They’re famous, they’re rich, they’re kings of the hill on that show, and to retain such a lovely and humble demeanour is a blessing, man.

In terms of direction of your character, were you given any backstory, or was it literally ‘sit there and look bored out of your mind, and let’s go!’

The focus of the scene is on Peter Dinklage, it’s on Sansa, it’s on Edmure… Largely it’s Peter’s scene, it’s about Tyrion, and the council deciding.

We did seven or eight days of shooting, I can’t remember, we were out there for a good week shooting the one scene, which is the most time I’ve ever spent on one scene. Possibly the most time I’ll ever spend, unless I get onto Star Wars, Dan and David, please, please.

So, in my mind, I’m thinking ‘We’re in Dorne, we’re safe, we’ve got the mountains, in Sunspear they can’t get us. Unbowed, unbent, unbroken. White Walkers aren’t coming, dragons can’t get us, we’re good, man! We’re good! I don’t want to sit on the Iron Throne!’

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It was bandied about that I was the younger brother of Prince Oberyn Martell, who doesn’t exist in the books. I’m too old to be one of Prince Doran’s children, believe it or not, so, yeah, we were assuming I was the Red Viper and Doran’s younger brother. Because I do look like their younger brother, I didn’t realise how much so until I saw the online articles. It’s uncanny!

So, anyway, I was thinking, ‘I’m fine. I’ll turn up, sure – might want to curry some favour, line-up a political marriage, who knows?’

Then on day three or four – and I suspect this is why they panned off from my ‘aye’ – Dan comes up to me and we’re about to do my close-ups, and he says ‘Okay, Toby, this is a really important decision, you need to work out what’s going to be best for Dorne, you’re really invested in this.’ And I’m like, ‘I wish I’d heard this on the first day of shooting!’ [laughs]

But you understand, it’s a big scene, they’ve got to focus on everyone. On Peter, on Bran, on Sansa, on everyone. But I suspect that the character shift from ‘I don’t give a f***’ to I’m really invested…

Ah, so the panning shot was in the first half of the week, then you got your direction in the second half.

Yep, so it’s understandable. But what a privilege, what an honour.

What was it like having a front row seat for that scene?

I’m sure no-one else has looked at my performance as closely as I have, but I’m very careful to look around, and I’m not having to act that much. Real acting is just acting naturally, really.

So when you’ve got Edmure, my character would never have met him, so when he stands up, I’m taking him seriously, until his niece gives him that sassy-ass shade – we all really cringed at that, I wish they had shown it, they had a little bit.

But I was enjoying it as Toby the performer, just watching everyone’s performance.





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