When the Game of Thrones series was still in development and in the early going, with many favorite characters yet to be cast, content-starved fans of the Song of Ice and Fire book series made a hobby out of dream-casting every last role. According to a GamesRadar interview, fans of the series took to the Internet and pegged Christie as an ideal actor for the role — well before the second season in which she's introduced. Online fervor was strong enough that some people took the step of contacting Christie's agent on her behalf, enthusiastic about her suitability for the role. The fans' online support pushed her to try out for the show, and in the months before the audition, she was already hitting the gym to get herself in fighting shape.

"Over six weeks a dear friend of mine worked with me," she said. "I started working out and lost a stone and a half" — about 21 pounds of excess weight. The prep work, coming off a stretch of her life during in which she was not hitting the gym regularly, paid off, despite the difficulty.

"I had to make a substantial leap physically to even be considered, let alone exceed the capacity of those around me who were competing for the part," Christie told Vogue.