'Game of Thrones' star Charles Dance says show became wildly succesful thanks to HBO
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA : 'Game of Thrones' actor Charles Dance reportedly said that he believed the hit HBO fantasy show would not have gained the same success had it been on any other network.
Dance is best known for playing the stern and merciless patriarch Tywin Lannister in the series from Season 1 until the Season 4 finale, in which he was killed by Tyrion. He said in an interview that the project would have been abandoned if a different network, like the BBC, had been in charge.
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'Sky and HBO nursed it'
Speaking to The Guardian, Dance said, "I had no idea where it was going to go. None of us had any idea that it was going to be the most successful television series ever made. Especially as the pilot wasn’t great. If it had been made by the BBC, they would have pulled the plug. But Sky and HBO nursed it, and we began to be aware that we were dealing with a pretty class act. I still had no idea that it would become this charming monster."
'HBO nurtured it'
Reflecting on how quickly 'Game of Thrones' became such a massive hit across the world, Dance said in an interview in 2016, "The pilot they made was not that successful but HBO kind of nurtured it, thought there was mileage in this, and embarked on the first series," adding, "If that had been the BBC, they’d have pulled the plug on it immediately and I was told that there was a time when the BBC were going to be part of the co-production and thank God they weren’t, because HBO knows how to spend money, and it was HBO and Sky Atlantic,” per The Guardian.
'Game of Thrones' is known for and did not hold back when it came to showing blood, gore and explicit sex scenes. However, Dance was unperturbed by the graphic nature of the show. He said, "They screened the first couple of episodes of season one for a whole bunch of us. I didn’t come into episode seven or something in season one, so this was all stuff I wasn’t involved in but I wanted to see what the flavour of the piece was."
Dance added, “So there’s all this rumpy pumpy going on, it was all doggy fashion, and I said to David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], the two writers – and they’re also executive producers – ‘Well, obviously the missionary position didn’t come into vogue in the Seven Kingdoms for some time to come.’ They said, ‘We wanted it to be animalistic, Charles.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s certainly that! Wham, bam, thank you mam.'"
"I mean, if people are going to be offended by it, they can turn it off," he concluded.