Gwendoline Christie Felt Compelled To Honor Brienne Of Tarth While Nominating Herself For An Emmy

Game of Thrones scooped up a record-breaking number of Emmy nominations in July, and it did not go unnoticed that Gwendoline Christie and Alfie Allen’s nods were actually self-nods. The duo nominated themselves because HBO feared cancelling out their bigger contenders by submitting their dozens of series regulars for nominations. Christie has now opened up on the process in an interview with the LA Times, and quite simply, she wanted to honor what she felt was a strong ending to her character’s eight-season journey.

That last sentence might seem odd to anyone who felt outrage after seeing Brienne sob over Jaime Lannister when he loved-and-left her for Cersei, and Christie addresses that also. First, though, she explained that the nomination was not only for herself, but that “I had to do it as a testament to the character and what I feel she represents.” Actors end up nominating themselves all the time, she insists, but she felt that Brienne’s combo of strength and newfound vulnerability was too huge to go unrecognized. Also, Christie says that Brienne didn’t lose herself within the Jaime loss:

“When you’re about to lose something that has truly meant something to you, it can destroy you, and I don’t think there’s any weakness in that. What I liked was that happens, but then she goes back to work. She doesn’t follow him, does she She stays with Sansa and she does her duty. And she did get her happy ending, and her happy ending wasn’t defined by a man.”

Indeed, Brienne finishes the series as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, and she completes Jaime’s story before the finale closes. There were some murmurs of annoyance over Christie expending any more energy on Jaime, but Christie was thrilled to see her character become three-dimensional during the course of those last episodes. In this way, Brienne became “complete” for the actress who played her, but if we’re rooting for a strong female to win the Best Supporting Female in a Drama award this year, then Brienne’s only one of the Thrones badasses who are up for the honor. Fierce competition comes from Maisie Williams for playing Arya. Of course, we’ll find out who wins when the Emmys go down on September 19th on FOX.