Game of Thrones star Conleth Hill has opened up about his character Varys' death, which kickstarted the penultimate episode of the series and finally confirmed Daenerys Targaryen was well on her way to becoming the Mad Queen.
At the start of the episode, Daenerys had Drogon incinerate Varys after she found out he intended to spread word about Jon Snow's lineage and claim to the Iron Throne. Hill called it a "bittersweet" moment and one he initially found tough to swallow.
"I took it very personally. I took it as a person, not as an actor or an artist," he told Entertainment Weekly. "I understood the reactions of previous actors who had been in same position a lot more than I did at the time. You can't help feeling that you failed in some way, that you haven't lived up to some expectation that you didn’t know about."
When asked how he felt about the death now that the episode has aired, Hill admitted, "In retrospect, great. At the time, nothing could console me. I kept thinking: 'What did I do wrong?' There wasn’t any pre-warning. All these famous stories about [actors on Game of Thrones] being taken out for a meal or being phoned at the very least [to notify them that their character was being killed off]. This was just reading cold hard copy."
Varys indicated how the series would end when he raised red flags to Tyrion and even asked Jon to take the throne because, if Daenerys succeeded, King's Landing would fall and innocents would perish. On Varys' resolute and selfless philosophies which doomed him to his fiery fate, Hill further added," All brilliant. All noble. He was absolutely true to his word the whole way through. All he wanted was the right person on the throne and a fair person on the throne."
Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, Game of Thrones stars Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark and Kit Harington as Jon Snow.