(Picture: MCM London)

Game Of Thrones actor Ian Beattie says playing Meryn Trant was ‘one of the greatest challenges’ of his acting career so far.

Speaking at MCM London, Ian explained how difficult it was to play the villainous character, who enjoyed raping young girls.

That is, until he came to a bloody end thanks to Arya Stark.

‘It was so awful, I mean I have three kids at home,’ the actor said. ‘And if anyone touched any of my children, let me tell you something, it would take that person longer to die than Meryn.


‘So yeah, they were extraordinarily upsetting scenes to do, one of the greatest challenges of my acting career so far.’

Ian as Meryn and Maisie Williams as Arya (Picture: HBO)

Ian said shooting the scenes with actress Maisie Williams were difficult, but still a brilliant experience because of her talent.



‘The actual end, when Maisie and I fight, well she’s just an incredible actress. Absolutely incredible,’ he said. ‘One of the most stunning young actresses I’ve ever seen, and she’s absolutely wonderful.

‘We decided, her and I, very, very early on, that in this particular scene we’d go for it. And we went for it. I had complete trust in her, and she had complete trust in me. It was technically very difficult as well because of the eyes. We filmed that last scene on my last day, unusually enough, and it was all filmed in order. So the last take [miming throat cutting] was the last take for me.

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‘Very early on in the day my eyes went out, so I had these prosthetics on. And for the last 7 or 8 hours on set I was completely blind, which was really weird. You had blood coming up, and blood going down your nose. It was all just technically very difficult. But being blinded really helped me show a vulnerability in that character, at that moment in time.

He added: ‘But it was very, very difficult. And I just thank whatever gods are up there that I had Maisie to do it with.’

Despite the fact Arya killed his character, the actor said he would have loved to play the young Stark, only ‘if I were other than who I am.’

So a 17-year old girl, right Ian?

Game Of Thrones season six will premiere May 2016