From Game of Thrones to Gentleman Jack: Gemma Whelan talks the Iron Throne and new series
- Whelan, who plays Queen of the Ironborn Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, talks about script leaks and her co-stars
- In her latest series, Gentleman Jack, she plays the sister of Victorian politician and lesbian Anne Lister
After wrapping up on the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, Gemma Whelan, who plays Queen of the Ironborn Yara Greyjoy in the show, will be taking on another HBO role.
Gentleman Jack, which has already premiered on HBO and is gaining fans, tells the story of unconventional 19th-century English landowner, politician and lesbian Anne Lister, who earned her own money, travelled the world, dressed in a masculine way and was known as “Gentleman Jack”.
The show is written by Sally Wainwright and stars Suranne Jones as Anne Lister. Whelan plays her sister, Marian.
In a group phone interview with the South China Morning Post, Whelan tells us about Marian, talks chemistry with her co-star Jones and the challenges of mothering while filming Game of Thrones, and her pick for the Iron Throne.
Q: What is Marian like?
She’s a perfectly interesting woman in her own right. Once you put her against her sister Anne, then she certainly looks rather ordinary. But she holds the household together. She’s very politically minded, very sure of what to do and how to run a household, and so when her sister comes home, she looks very boring and uninteresting. Of course, there’s a bit of comedy to be had in that contrast.
Q: How did you approach the role of Marian Lister? Did you do your own research or did you rely solely on the script and the director's interpretation?
I did some of my own research, but there’s not a great deal about her. All we really know about her is Anne Lister's version of her. I trusted Sally’s scripts and … there was also a fantastic expert on Anne Lister and the Lister family on set with us all the time. She was hugely helpful with the landmark stages that the family went through, the timeline and how the family operated, she was fantastic.
We did the best we could, given the information we had from Anne's diaries and of course, some artistic licence.
We don’t get printed scripts, they are on an app called Synchronise. We have passwords, verification codes and all these different steps we have to get through to access the script, which was then only available for a short amount of time
Q: What do you think of Anne Lister?
I think she’s absolutely fantastic. It’s remarkable what she did and what she recorded in her diaries, what she achieved at a time when it was entirely unheard of for a woman to be thinking that sort of thing or to be doing the things she did. It’s remarkable to have that tenacity, power, strength and the knowledge of self and mind for her to go about what she did and never take no for an answer. She’s just quite exquisite and an early example of what women are if they are allowed to be.
Q: What are some aspects of Marian and Yara Greyjoy that you relate to?
Their strong sense of self, their independence, how they both know very clearly who they are and what their role is and how to achieve what they need to achieve. And also, both of them are extremely frustrated by their siblings.
Q: Can you talk a bit about your chemistry with your co-actors Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones) and Suranne Jones?
I’m always fascinated by the alchemy of casting, particularly very skilful casting that’s done where you don’t have a chemistry read. I only met Alfie at the read-through, but we instantly hit it off as if we were already related. It’s really magical to discover that we have that sort of natural rapport and care so deeply about each other in our real lives.
The same with Suranne, we just hit it off immediately, and I would say she’s one of the kindest, most hard-working, brilliant women I’ve ever worked with. I was really honoured to be playing her sister. We had a lot of fun, because we do a lot of bickering, particularly in later episodes.
I think to approach a scene like that if you get on very well as friends, you can have a good play with the tension in the scene when you film it. We had a good time and both of them are very firm friends of mine now.
Q: Tell us more about how the producers prevent leaks on Game of Thrones.
We don’t get printed scripts, they are on an app called Synchronise. We have passwords, verification codes and all these different steps we have to get through to access the script, which was then only available for a short amount of time.
Q: Did you keep anything from the Thrones set and what was the last day of shooting like for you?
I kept my character’s boots, with permission, of course. My last day was surprisingly emotional because I can be rather sanguine about these things. On the day we wrapped we were given a gift by the producers – it was a very beautifully done wrap to mark such an occasion for us all. It’s a big moment to wrap on a show that you've been on for so long and we were all given a framed piece of storyboard from a significant scene our character had been through in the show and they wrote a dedication to us on the back as well.
Q: Who did you, personally, want to sit on the Iron Throne?
Me? Whoa … I actually don’t know who’s still alive, so I really don’t know. Maybe in a terrible twist, Joffrey comes back to life. Maybe him, I’ve always liked him.
Q: Which Thrones death shocked you the most?
Catelyn Stark’s made me really sad, she was an everywoman, wasn’t she? Loved her. And the one that hit me hardest – and for, I think, everyone – was Ned Stark. The two Starks, those were shocking and sad.
Q: Which of the characters you have played or from the shows you have been in would you like to sit down and have dinner with?
They’re all very interesting. I'd probably sit down with Anne and have a good old chat. If she was able to be really honest with me, I’d like to know what it is like being who she is and how she is, at that time, and her personal struggles.
Meet the Starks: a Game of Thrones location tour in Northern Ireland
Q: You recently shared a photo of you breastfeeding your baby daughter while still in Yara’s costume. What are the challenges of taking care of a baby while taking part in such a huge TV show and did you receive any help from the crew or your co-stars?
It just never felt like a big deal. It was part of what I needed to do and the circumstances for that to happen were provided. It was just logistics for me, in terms of my husband coming, where the baby was going to be and how they were going to get to me on set. Apart from that – which of course production helped with, as always – it was very easy. It was just so completely normal and part of what we all did in the day, and that was one thing that I did. It’s not a difficult thing to do in between scenes, you just go and feed the baby.
Thank you for doing that and representing us working mothers.
No worries! I’m really pleased that it got such a good reaction. I think it’s very important to just know that it’s easy, that it should be OK to be able to do that.
All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are available on HBO GO; an "encore marathon" of the eighth and final season will be shown on HBO on the weekend of May 25-26, starting from 12pm. Gentleman Jack is on every Tuesday at 10am on HBO GO and the last episode of the new series will air on June 11.
