{"id":66768,"date":"2017-07-19T16:13:52","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T13:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ngradio.gr\/?p=66768\/"},"modified":"2019-11-04T22:44:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T20:44:08","slug":"game-thrones-director-defends-ed-sheerans-polarizing-cameo-deserved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ngradio.gr\/en\/news-el\/diafora-en\/game-thrones-director-defends-ed-sheerans-polarizing-cameo-deserved\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 Director Defends Ed Sheeran\u2019s Polarizing Cameo: \u2018He Deserved to Be There\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran TV director Jeremy Podeswa has helmed some of\u00a0Game of Thrones<\/em>\u2019 moodiest, most striking moments over the past two seasons:\u00a0Jon Snow\u2019s resurrection, Sansa\u2019s Winterfell\u00a0wedding to Ramsay, and Melisandre\u2019s jaw-dropping\u00a0reveal of her true age, among others. For Season 7, he was tasked with both Sunday\u2019s premiere and the finale \u2014 and the show\u2019s biggest, most divisive musician cameo yet.<\/p>\n

Pop singer Ed Sheeran appears\u00a0midway through \u201cDragonstone\u201d\u00a0as a nameless Lannister soldier, serenading his comrades at a campfire with a little ditty about Tyrion Lannister and his secret, now dead ex-love, Shae. Arya Stark (played by real-life Sheeran superfan Maisie Williams, who inspired showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to cast him as a surprise) stumbles across Sheeran as he sings \u201cHands of Gold\u201d and stops to chat with the group over roasted squirrel and blackberry wine.<\/p>\n

The scene was meant as one of the show\u2019s \u201cgrace notes,\u201d says Podeswa \u2014 a rare offbeat moment of empathy and understanding between Arya and a group of young men that, in any other instance, she would have killed without a second thought. For many though, Sheeran\u2019s instantly-recognizable face and voice proved too distracting. The cameo drew sharp criticism from myriad corners of the internet (not this corner;\u00a0we were fine with it), and seems to have prompted a short-lived\u00a0social media break\u00a0from the singer.<\/p>\n

All of which has baffled Podeswa. \u201cI\u2019m a bit surprised that people have made that much fuss about it,\u201d he tells the Daily Beast. \u201cTo me, he does seem quite organic, in his own way, to the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is,\u00a0everybody<\/em>\u00a0on the show is famous now,\u201d he laughs. \u201cSo it doesn’t mean anything to me. It\u2019s about, are they appropriate for the role? Are they doing a good job? And it was yes, yes, yes to all those questions with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

We talked to Podeswa about Sheeran\u2019s polarizing cameo and fans\u2019 responses, Arya\u2019s triumphant revenge on the Freys, and what it was like to finally film Daenerys Targaryen\u2019s homecoming to Dragonstone.<\/p>\n

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What was it like directing Ed Sheeran?<\/b><\/p>\n

Delightful! Genuinely. He is a lovely person; he\u2019s really down-to-earth. If you didn’t know that he was a pop star or an entertainer of any kind, you would think he\u2019s just one of the guys. And he is. He really just wanted to do a great job. He\u2019s been acting for a little while; he takes it very seriously. And he was a real trouper, too. We were shooting in the middle of nowhere in Northern Ireland. He sat around outside with the cast and crew all day long, and just kind of hung out and was good-humored and lovely. He took direction well. He really could not have been nicer.<\/p>\n