Ethan Alter

'Game of Thrones': Liam Cunningham Debates the Perils of Being a Likable Character

·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment

April 19, 2016 at 10:01 PM

Our long wait is (almost) over. A year after the Season 5 finale that launched a thousand fan theories, Game of Thrones is preparing to enter new territory in its sixth season, which debuts Sunday, April 24 on HBO. For the first time in its history, the series will venture completely off book, as the writers have lapped the release of author George R.R. Martin’s final two novels. So now, both readers and newbies will be on the same proverbial page when we return to Westeros, Dorne, and points beyond.

As viewers count down the days to Game of Thrones’ return, we here at Yahoo TV are launching our official countdown: #GoTIsComing. Check back here every day over the next month as we explore all of our favorite (and a few of our least favorite) people, places, and things about television’s most addictive show. From Direwolves and Dragons to the shows most hideous deaths and imperiled characters, we’re going to indulge or GoT obsession with the same fervor that Cersei imbibes alcohol. So raise a glass and toast the impending arrival of a long, cruel, and bloody Westerosi winter.

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Next to the Mos Eisley spaceport, it’s hard to think of a more wretched hive of deceit and villainy than Westeros, the land so many characters in Game of Thrones call home. But there are at least a few hardy souls who manage to maintain their sense of honor even when surrounded by so much treachery and destruction. Ser Davos, Seaworth, aka the Onion Knight (played by Liam Cunningham), is one such man.

A former smuggler turned unfailingly loyal associate of Stannis Baratheon — one of the many men who would be king of Westeros — Davos has never wavered in his commitment to Stannis’s cause, even when it cost him the life of his son (during the Battle of the Blackwater). Now that Baratheon’s campaign has come to a decisive end, though, at the swords of Ramsay Bolton’s army, Davos finds himself as a soldier without a leader. Does this mean that the one nice man in Westeros is about to get a lot less nice? We spoke with Cunningham about what might be in store for the Onion Knight in Season 6, and what it’s been like to be part of a series that’s already achieved mythological status.

What’s your go-to response when Game of Thrones fans ask you for spoilers about the new season?
It depends on how naughty I feel. The stock answer is, “I can’t tell you anything.” But sometimes, I’ll turn around and say, “OK, I’ll tell you.” And they’ll go, “No, don’t!” The want to know, but they also don’t want to know. If I had told you the episode before Ned Stark got his head cut off that that was going to happen, you would have killed me for stealing that moment.

Ser Davos is well-liked amongst viewers because he seems like one of the few genuine nice guys in Westeros. His loyalty to Stannis is admirable, even if his actions sometimes aren’t.
The moral compass of the show tends to sway all over the place, so you do need a few characters to hang your hat on. And with Davos, one of the reasons fans like him is because he’s not a powerful guy. He’s a quiet hero, the guy you want on the other end of the phone. If your wheel falls off your car in the middle of the freeway, he’s going to be there with another wheel. Samwell is a bit like that, in a sense, and Jon Snow was, but he had to make a point that he was in charge. I love the fact that Davos is from the worst place in Westeros, Flea Bottom, but he has more nobility than the people who were born into money. I think viewers like that. What worries me is that when the audience really likes someone, the writers are like: “Let’s kill him!” [Laughs.] So I don’t want to be liked too much; they’ll come in with the axe.

We’ll see how loyal he still feels to Stannis after he learns what the would-be king did to his own daughter, Shireen.
The last time we saw him in Season 5, he had just found out about Shireen. We just saw his face, no reaction or anything. We’ll have to see where that takes us.

And he’s also in the company of his former enemy, Melisandre, which should add to the tension.
They’re not former enemies — they still are! But they find themselves together, because [of Stannis]. They’re like chalk and cheese, and yet they’re both suffering the same consequences.

What’s the craziest fan theory you’ve heard about Davos’s storyline this season?
Some fans are assuming that I’m going to kill Jon Snow’s direwolf, Ghost. They tried to decipher that from the trailer. I’m thinking, “You’re really stretching your imagination there!” [Laughs.]

The scale of the series has always been so impressive.
The cinematic aspect of the series is amazing. I remember the Battle of the Blackwater back in Season 2. We shot that in a car park! But onscreen, it was just this magic piece of visual storytelling. I’m always looking at this series, and thinking, “This thing is timeless.” It’s going to be rediscovered again and again by a new audience, because it’s beautiful storytelling, and complicated and grown-up. It’s its own mythology. And we’re over the peak here in Season 6. We’re climbing back down the mountain, and that’s the difficult bit!

Do you already know what souvenir you’ll be taking from the series when it wraps up? Davos’s bag of fingerbones perhaps?
No, that’s gone missing! I wanted it. I did a terrible thing to my daughter. I brought home the wooden stag that Davos gives Shireen. She’s got a Wall of Awesome in her room, so I told her to put this on her wall, saying, “You’re going to need this.” Before we watched Episode 9 [where Shireen is burned at the stake], I told her to go get it. So she held the stag during that episode. I was in tears watching it, and she was really distraught. She’s 23, so not a kid, but I still feel really guilty about it!

Since Davos is nicknamed the Onion Knight, are you prepared for fans to give you bags of onions for the rest of your life?
I don’t care! I love onions. I cook with them all the time. [Laughs.]

Game of Thrones Season 6 premieres Sunday, April 24 at 9 p.m. on HBO.

Read more of our #GoTIsComing coverage:

‘Game of Thrones’ Peril-o-Meter: Who Dies Next?

‘Game of Thrones’: 11 Classic Tyrion Lannister Insults For Every Occasion

‘Game of Thrones’: Everything You Need to Know About the Direwolves of House Stark

‘Game of Thrones’: 10 Characters Who Were Recast

‘Game of Thrones’: Cersei and Wine, a Love Story

‘Game of Thrones’: 10 Best Dragon Moments

‘Game of Thrones’: 10 Characters We Want to Come Back to Life

‘Game of Thrones’: 10 Characters Who Really Need to Die

‘Game of Thrones’: Bran Stark Is Back (and He’s All Grown Up)

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