Such is the hunger for fans to know the show’s secrets – including the greatest secret of all, who will sit on the Iron Throne – that drones and even ultralight aircrafts have been spotted flying over the sets in Northern Ireland. But today its delicious vegan fare rather than season spoilers on the table as Riley introduces me to one of her favourite restaurants, OM Vegan Kitchen in Surry Hills. We decide to eat our meals across the road at Harmony Park. I select brown rice, potatoes and a vegan massaman curry, washed down with kombucha. “Are you sure you’ve got enough?” Riley asks solicitously, before selecting “a bit of everything” from the buffet, followed by a green yogi smoothie. Deborah Riley, the production designer on Game of Thrones. Credit:Jessica Hromas As we sit in the park and tuck in, Riley says that her last day on GOT – July 6, the day “her watch had ended” – was “really emotional”. “Not only because my work on the show had ended, but more particularly because it meant saying goodbye to so many people that I've worked with for five-and-a-half years," she says. “I think just to have had a front-row seat at [GOT] is extraordinary.”

In person, Riley radiates warmth and a fierce intelligence. A graduate of Dramatic Art (Design) from Sydney's NIDA, Riley’s early work included working as set director on The Matrix (1999). But she says three particular projects helped prepare her for working on Game Of Thrones. “The first was working on Moulin Rouge, which meant Baz [Luhrmann] taught me how to work on stage. Working in that art department was all about building on stage," she says. Loading “Then I was lucky enough to work on Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 21 Grams. That was great, because Alejandro is all about working on location. “And then what I had previously learned working on the closing ceremony of the [Sydney] Olympics was to never be afraid of scale ever again.” (Riley was the art director for the 2000 Games.) Riley moved to LA in 2008 – right in the middle of the global financial crisis. “It was a time when a lot of people were out of work, not just me. I would get work and then the work would either fall over, or someone would be fired, or an actress would leave, or it would be delayed. It really taught me how fickle the film industry is and just how difficult being a freelancer is. If you want to stay with it then you've really got to be incredibly determined.”

After five tough years she had a breakthrough in 2013 when HBO called and said: “We think you should interview for this job.” Her audition process for season four lasted about a month: “If there was anything that had my DNA on it, it was Game Of Thrones.”



Based in Titanic Studios in Belfast – where, incidentally, the real-life doomed Titanic was built – Riley worked to bring to life the vision of author George R.R. Martin and showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. As head of the art department, she oversaw the construction of the sets, including the carpentry, painting, plastering, set decoration, props, model-making, graphics and scenic art.

At any one time she could be working on sets as varied as the giant audience chamber at Dragonstone - the place where Iron throne contender Daenerys Targaryen makes her much anticipated landfall in Westeros - to arch villain Euron Greyjoy’s warship. Daenerys Targaryen at Dragonstone in Season 7. She says that while a feature film might have 90 to 120 shoot days, on Season 6 “we hit about 250 shoot days. Certainly by the time we finished Season 8 [the final season] it was even more than that.” The former architecture student was able to cherry-pick from real-life history for inspiration. “You should be able to smell a set, it should feel so real,” she told Collective Hub magazine. And part of the show’s success is its ability to convince viewers that both the show’s human dramas as well as its dragons and giant ice walls are real.

“I know that sounds funny, because it still has dragons and dire wolves, but for me, in order to make you believe in dragons, the world had to be believable and real. I always wanted the inspiration to come from real-world places.” Thee Hall of Faces was inspired by Hong Kong’s Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. Credit:HBO/Foxtel For example, the Hall of Faces within the House of Black and White in Braavos, from Season 5, was inspired by Riley’s visit to Hong Kong’s Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. The totalitarian Iron Bank of Braavos (first seen in Season 4), was inspired by Albert Speer's architecture for Germany's Third Reich, while Daenerys’s audience chamber in Meereen (Season 4) was a nod to Frank Lloyd Wright. Incidentally, what will happen to all the sets now that filming is over? “I don't know. I mean, we were madly cataloguing everything at the end of the show, so hopefully one day the public will be able to see them," Riley says. “As we were gradually clearing the stages and the studios were sort of closing down, that was very sad as well. Because a once-thriving community was gradually emptying out. And that was difficult as well … watching things go into the skip that had sat there for years.” Riley has worked so long on the mythical world of Westeros it must almost seem like a real place to her. “I used to always say to my friends, when I would leave Sydney and go and work on another season, that I was heading off to Westeros. That was psychologically a good thing for me because it meant that I was actually going somewhere else. I would drop off the planet," she says.

“It was very difficult to keep in touch with even family. It was just so intense. To say I was in Westeros, somehow, removed me from daily life and took me away.” Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer), centre, and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) in Season 5. Westeros certainly looks amazing on TV – but would she want to live there? “No one is really safe in Westeros,” she says.

It has a savage beauty, though. “It certainly is quite beautiful in places. If you’re lucky enough to have money, it wouldn't have been so bad. Certainly, the people down in Dorne seem to have life worked out.” In Sydney, Harmony Park is filling up with the lunchtime crowd. My delicious vegan feast is over (and moreish … Riley was right, I should have gone back for seconds). So what is next for Riley, now that she is no longer heading off to Westeros, the land of swords and sorcery and dragons? One thing is for sure – it won’t involve barrels.

“I've had enough of medieval barrels and I was saying that about three years in. I was like, ‘If I see another medieval barrel ...’ “It was fantastic to live in Westeros for those five years. It is also great to know that I can go off and explore other worlds now," Riley says. “I'm not sure they'll ever live up to what Westeros was, but just the fact that they won't have a medieval barrel in sight is enough to keep me interested at this stage.” The bill: OM Vegan Kitchen, corner Brisbane and Goulburn streets, Surry Hills.

2 x self-serve buffet, $12.50 per 500g, $22.80; Green Yogi smoothie $9; Kombucha $5. Total: $36.80 Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video