Varys Actor Conleth Hill Was Upset with His ‘Game of Thrones’ Ending: “Oh, That Sucks”

The last episode of Game of Thrones, “The Bells” isn’t just dividing fans and critics, but the show’s actual cast. In a startling candid interview with EW, Varys actor Conleth Hill expressed all sorts of dismay over his character’s death in the episode. Hill told the magazine’s Game of Thrones correspondent James Hibberd, “Part of you is, ‘Oh, that’s very good.’ And part of you is, ‘Oh, that sucks,'” and he only had more to say after that.

For eight seasons, Varys has been at the heart of every major political movement in Game of Thrones. His character is the Master of Whispers, aka the show’s spymaster. He also is one of the few characters who cares more about the people of Westeros than the noble families. He backed Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) to free the realm from the instability of the Lannisters, but then grew concerned by her temper and moods. When he learns that Jon Snow (Kit Harington) is Rhaegar Targaryen’s trueborn heir, he makes moves to betray Dany to put Jon on the Iron Throne. Varys is found out early in Season 8, Episode 5, “The Bells,” but it seems he may have managed to send off some secret messages to nobles before Daenerys executed him via dragonfire.

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“I took it very personally. I took it as a person, not as an actor or an artist,” Hill said when asked about his feelings about his character’s fate.  “You can’t help feeling that you failed in some way, that you haven’t lived up to some expectation that you didn’t know about.”

EW’s Hibberd seems to be the only major journalist who was allowed to visit the set of Game of Thrones‘s eighth and final season. During his time there, he spoke to Hill who was aware of his character’s fate, but still in the middle of the monster-sized production. As such, Hill’s comments are full of emotion. Though he insists that he thinks the ending is “in retrospect, great,” Hill also was let down because for the first time ever, all the actors learned about their deaths not through a personal conversation with the producers, but as they were reading the scripts for the first time.

“At the time, nothing could console me. I kept thinking: ‘What did I do wrong?’ There wasn’t any pre-warning,” Hill said. “This was just reading cold hard copy.”

Hill said he was also “bummed” that he didn’t get a final scene with Aidan Gillen’s Littlefinger, as the two characters had a huge history together. When asked about how he felt about Varys’s actions against Daenerys, he was more effusive. “All brilliant. All noble. He was absolutely true to his word the whole way through. All he wanted was the right person on the throne and a fair person on the throne,” Hill said.

And how did the actor think fans would feel about the show’s ultimate finale? “I have no idea. I don’t know how I feel. I can’t anticipate it until it happens. I don’t think they’ll feel cheated. The fan favorites are all there,” he said.

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