I've never been on a set
like the one we had on the days that we were shooting the Red Wedding.
We've been working together for so long.
Now most of the crew has been together since the pilot and most of the cast.
So the set for those days, especially the last day,
was a very strange atmosphere.
When you make television and movies together,
you become a family because you spend so much time together.
There was a real sense of dread.
Everyone working on that sequence really saw what was coming to an end here.
Partly, it's because of what happens in the story.
But partly, it's also these actors that we've worked with for so long
are not gonna be working with us anymore.
Every year, I've got to the end of the series and, "See you in six months."
And now I won't have that anymore, and that's difficult, it's very difficult.
Everyone had this knot in their stomach and a lump in their throat.
They knew this was going to happen.
BENIOFF: The Red Wedding is such a dark moment in the saga.
People were having a hard time with it.
MICHELLE FAIRLEY: There's something wonderful about doing the Red Wedding.
It's beautifully written, I think.
And you want, as an actor, to do it justice
irrespective of you know that this is your character's demise.
It was wonderfully fitting and powerful and rich,
and something that no one will ever forget that was there that day.
(BAND PLAYING THE RAINS OF CASTAMERE)
I spent many, many, many hours figuring out this would happen, then that would happen,
and then this would happen, this would happen.
The whole dynamic of all the things that are going on,
the only way to really do it to cover all those beats is with a lot of specific cuts.
NUTTER: You're also figuring out angles and coverage
and how you're going to do that
and how you're gonna shoot all one way and then shoot all this way.
There's gonna be lots of pieces to editorially
bring it up to the perfect climax that it comes to.
And then we're doing the arrival to the Red Wedding.
RORY McCANN: The Twins are pretty impressive.
Drawbridges and torches going on.
You're still having to kick the walls quietly
to realize that they're polystyrene or whatever, they're not real.
WILLIAMS: Little things start to turn and change.
She can hear Grey Wind howling, which is a little bit odd.
Then there's Frey guards running around everywhere.
But she didn't expect anything bad is gonna happen.
NUTTER: She sees some Stark guards inside the courtyard and she wants to get closer,
so she leaves the cart and sneaks herself into the courtyard.
There's just a classic double cliffhanger structure,
where you've got in the one scene something bad is happening,
and then we pull away from that and let that tension sit there
and in the other scene, Arya, we know something bad is happening
and we know that this little girl is running towards it and not away from it.
And then you go back into the hall itself
for the real beginning of the end with the Red Wedding.
Your Grace.
What was important for me in directing this sequence
is basically how this house of cards would fall
and the domino effect of what would happen.
Walder Frey sits everyone down and he calls Robb Stark's attention.
I wanted Robb Stark to get a step away from Talisa and stand in the middle of the room.
So Walder Frey and him, they could have this conversation
as Robb stood away from Talisa who was at the table.
Soto me, it was important to separate them,
so that when Lothar Frey goes to kill Talisa, Robb Stark was not next to her at the time.
Robb!
This is quite a big scene and everything is gonna happen at once.
So the first person who gets it in the Red Wedding is Talisa.
Apparently, the knife is gonna be CGI-ed in, so it's just gonna be a handle.
So very quick stabs.
We'll have a blood rig which spreads the blood from there.
We then have Robb...
I get the first quarrel through me, and then the second, then the third.
It gets very technical because the arrows are coming from a height
so that affects how it hits you,
and technically, we've got to make it in a way
so that I can turn around and see Walder and see where it's come from.
We'll have arrow hits going on him so we'll do tons of special effects...
We have little straps we put on and we push the bolts in.
We have all the background artists and the stunt artists
who end up in a fight in the background.
We've discussed various throat cuts,
arrow hits, which there'll be a lot of those,
'cause the musicians all pop up and take everybody out with the crossbow bolts.
We have arrow hits going in somebody's mouth and out.
We used maybe 10, 20 gallons of blood in this scene.
Robb!
(GROANING)
(SCREAMING)
(GROANS)
(ALL GROANING)
(SCREAMING IN PAIN)
(GROANS)
Ohh!
(GROANS)
-(MEN SHOUTING) - Ahh!
Ahh!
(STARK SOLDIERS SCREAMING)
(SCREAMS)
NUTTER: Robb Stark has fallen to the ground.
Talisa's just been stabbed. She's crawling.
And Catelyn's gotten shot, and basically, all the fight's going on,
and we leave the scene very quickly in the middle of this.
WEISS: Again, we cut outside to Arya where she witnesses the exterior portion of this
and lets us know that this is not something that's just happening inside.
For the initial slaughter in the inner courtyard,
we wanted this action to be very swift and efficient.
We did blood rigs.
We doubled them up this time because we knew it wasn't gonna go too close.
We would shoot the action dry just with their blades, no blood.
We would then cover over these blades with blood.
And then we'd just back up a couple of steps, then repeat the action and continue.
So then you would see them going out with blood on their swords and their daggers.
Arya then hears the direwolf.
To simulate Grey Wind in the pen, we actually put in our sword master in there, C.C.,
and he was just in there, pounding on the door.
Banging against the wall, like I'm going to burst out.
I did some fantastic action inside of that.
Cut!
(GREY WIND GROWLING)
(GREY WIN D YOWLS)
And then as the guards walk right past her again, she looks back
and she looks and she sees in this little hole from the horse stall,
she sees a little bit of Grey Wind's eye.
It's a horrific moment, and the shot from Arya's point of view,
where you see that wolf dying, you see the light go out of its eyes,
is so effective that I think it really anchors the emotion of that moment.
Maisie did her own stunts,
and Rory was spot on every time with his hits making them work for the camera.
Luckily, all the guys had been doing the stunt fight before,
so they'd mushed up all the ground so it was nice and soft to fall onto.
And I had knee pads on as well, so those were takes of most of the way
and then I'd sort of roll, flop onto the floor afterwards.
I was hoping that maybe my stunt double would do it
because I didn't want to look terrible, I didn't want to look like I was a terrible punchy...
But I tried my best.
I'm hoping that it's gonna look good.
Sometimes the best directing is getting out of the way
and not making actors have to worry about technical stuff.
So if I'm able to block it in a way that they understand what they're doing
and they can get the dance moves down in some respect,
then let them go at it and have at it.
Just to know that you're in really safe hands is a joy,
especially in a scene where there's so much going on and it's so technical.
You don't want to overthink it.
You want it to be as real as possible and as guttural and as emotional as possible.
David makes sure that we're all really prepared
and ready to make the best of this operatic ending to season three.
NUTTER: I started a shot on Talisa lying there,
a very tight close-up on her,
and I went across her bleeding belly and racked to Robb Stark
and he basically was still alive and he looked up and he looked at her.
And then I stand again and I'm not quite finished yet,
and then it gets worse, obviously.
CHAPLIN: And there I was, lying on the floor,
and I was weeping, going, "This is going to be so hard to watch."
Just go, "Wow, this is the end of this family
"that have gone through so much to get to this point."
And then we just don't go any further.
I had Catelyn basically see Walder Frey's wife, run up to Walder Frey's wife,
pull her down on the ground and put a knife to her throat.
Catelyn is assuming that Walder Frey will save his wife,
so there's this triangle going on and you think that that's gonna work.
You have Catelyn basically begging him, pleading with Walder Frey to let Robb live.
He is my son.
My first son.
Let him go, and I swear that we will forget this.
I swear it by the Old Gods and New.
I've rehearsed the sequence with David,
but, I think, a lot of that, you have to wait until it's in the moment.
NUTTER: Michelle is quite an actress and she likes to do things for real
so she went in there and did a lot of hair pulling in the various takes we did and...
But it really played so beautifully and so strongly.
Catelyn Stark is screaming at Lord Walder to,
"Stop it, stop it." There's just a chance he may be saved.
Her constant quest, which I found interesting,
was that to the end she will protect her family,
and that's what kept her going.
And the fact that she died trying to protect
is something that I think is extremely wonderful.
The moment he says, "I'll find another," she, of course, knows that she's doomed.
But most importantly, Robb Stark realizes this.
When he turns around and looks at his mother,
there's a moment of just resignation, I think,
and maybe even slight relief.
And out of the blue, I just come, I slip right through and just plunge the knife deep in.
NUTTER: Robb Stark drops to his knees, looks at his mother,
and Catelyn is there seeing her son die.
And what happens so powerfully, and Michelle's so wonderful at this,
-is that she loses it completely. -(WAILING)
NUTTER: By doing so, she basically takes her knife,
slits Walder Frey's wife's throat, she drops to the ground,
she's lost it completely.
And all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
Black Walder comes up behind her and slits her throat.
(mums)