Game of Thrones’ Indira Varma: ‘All I was being offered was women undressing’
She was ruthless Ellaria in the TV epic. As she appears in a Noël Coward comedy, the actor talks about her dreams of returning to mime – and why sticking with her name may have hurt her career
‘People always talk about that scream,” says Indira Varma over salad and strawberries at the Old Vic theatre. The actor is recalling the howl she lets out in season four of Game of Thrones, after her lover Oberyn has his eyes gouged out by a hulking brute called the Mountain. Splatter flies and we cut to her character, Ellaria, who gives a blood-curdling screech.
What personal demons, I wonder, was Varma summoning to produce that? “It was the last thing they shot that day,” she recalls. “I had one go. We were losing the light. So it’s like…” She draws a breath and drags out an expletive until her voice squeaks. Then she says with a shrug: “You have to deliver.”