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'Game Of Thrones' Actor Joe Dempsie Finally Reveals What Happened To Gendry

'Game Of Thrones' Actor Joe Dempsie Finally Reveals What Happened To Gendry

And now, his rowing is ended.

After he climbed into a boat and rowed out of our lives in Season 3 of “Game of Thrones,” the most memed-about mystery on the show became “what happened to Gendry?”

Finally, on Season 7 , Episode 5, “Eastwatch,” actor Joe Dempsie brought his character, the bastard son of Robert Baratheon, back to “Game of Thrones,” when Davos discovered him blacksmithing for the Lannisters at King’s Landing.

And Dempsie couldn’t be more relieved.

“Thank God,” the actor told HuffPost of Gendry’s return. “It’s a relief, mate. I think the question of, ‘Where is Gendry?’ ‘What are you up to, dude?’ ‘You still rowing, man?’ has become part of my daily existence for the last three years.”

Though, Dempsie is thankful for all those questions and all your memes, saying they probably helped him stay employed.

“It was always the plan to bring Gendry back at some point and tie up that loose end and answer those questions, but you’re also aware that the show is huge, and the show is bigger than any one character or an actor. It is the sum of its parts,” he said. “You’re never sure whether they [the showrunners] are going to have time. They might decide a couple of years down the line that there are other storylines they need to concentrate on as it reaches its climax, and I guess if no one really seems to notice that you’ve gone, you’re an easy character to lose.”

“They probably kept me in a job,” Dempsie added. The actor officially learned he would be returning about 18 months ago, and had to keep the news a secret ever since. “This feels like a real exhale. It’s gonna be out there, and it’s great to be back involved,” he said.

But, let’s get down to the real question: What happened to Gendry?

“I think that hiding-in-plain-sight thing is what Gendry decided is the best way to go about it. King’s Landing, and particularly Flea Bottom, it’s an environment he’s familiar with and often that’s easiest to survive in those types of places. The landscape you know, the people you know, all the tricks of the trade and sort of how you can go unnoticed,” Dempsie said.

The actor also talked about how Gendry’s experiences have shaped him into the character he’s become. “He almost misses the danger he was in before, and added to that he’s making weapons for Lannisters, the family he now knows killed his father, the family that he knows tried to have him killed, and there’s a great deal of resentment that’s been allowed to fester as a result of that,” he said.

Dempsie continued to open up about what we can expect from Gendry and what he really thought of all those memes. And, most importantly, he revealed whether all that rowing made him super ripped ― or not.

HBO

What’s it been like seeing all the memes over the years?

I have to sort of take a portion of responsibility. I fueled the fire.

Oh, I know. I’ve seen your tweets.

Yeah, dude, and it’s lovely. It’s quite rare as an actor you get a chance to be involved in something that has such a huge committed fan base that’s all over the world, that are also really funny and clever and so obsessed about it and have the time to make these memes. I’ve just enjoyed it. Every year there’s a fresh batch. Whether it be “The Life of Gendry,” like the “Life of Pi” in the boat with the tiger. It never ceases to amaze me how inventive people could be, and I’ve enjoyed it in a way. It’s going to be sad to see that element go, but yeah, it’s been a riot.

So are your arms completely jacked now?

Aw, mate, I mean, this is the thing. I see that. I see that on the internet, and then I have to look at my own arms and go, “Ah, there are going to be some disappointed people out there.” The thing is this time around, like in the first three seasons when I was first offered the part, I was astounded because as an actor when you’re sent a script or some scenes to read for an audition, they usually give a little breakdown of the character ― just a few lines to give a sense of who this person is and maybe a physical description ― and the physical description was “tall, muscular, with thick black hair.” And I was literally none of those three. So I thought, “All right. This isn’t going to go my way.” Then they offered me the part, but they did say, “We’re going to dye your hair black, and it’d be great if you hit the gym and put on a bit of bulk before you get here.”

I still try and go to the gym in between jobs, but when you have that goal, when you have a thing where you go, “All right. I have to start filming on this date and they’ve told me I need to be jacked,” you get that motivation to keep going. Then it becomes a habit or borders on an obsession sometimes, so I kept myself in shape the first three seasons, and then I had a scene I think in Season 2 where I’m fairly inexplicably forging a sword with no top on. I mean, it’s raining. I can’t say that it’s warm. He’s just got his bod out, and David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] knew that I had been hitting the gym in order to get in shape for that. So this time around when I was coming back, they said, “All right, so yeah, you’re coming back and you better hit the gym, dude, and get back in shape.”

And then I was like, “All right, OK.” Really, really went for it. And then there was no scene whatsoever. No gratuitous shirtless scene. Usually, I’m like, “If I’m going to do anything like that, that needs to make sense for the story for the narrative.” It needs to have some integrity to it. I’m not just going to get my top off for no reason. Then, this time around, I was like, “You better put a gratuitous topless scene. I’ve spent hours in that fucking gym!” [Laughs] And there was nothing. Viewers aren’t going to be able to see under my shirt, so I’m just going to pretend that, yeah, he’s huge.

Hah. Yeah, Davos even makes a rowing joke when you come back.

Yeah, yeah, he does. And I think that’s the thing I sort of noticed reading the scripts for Season 7. That it’s an indication of what a phenomenon this show is. It’s become such a cultural reference point, “Game of Thrones,” and there’s so much talk about it. The fans are so keen. I think David and Dan are allowing themselves a couple of real crowd-pleasing moments in a way that maybe they didn’t do in the first few seasons, a couple of little nods to fan theories or things that people seem to want to happen. They’re able to be a little more self-referential now. They’re just in their groove, those guys, and I think it takes a real confidence in your work to know you can do that and get away with it. For it not to veer into the cheesy or the cliches, like, “Davos says that and then looks down the lens and winks.”

It’s just put in there, and people are going to love it. I think they’ve not been afraid to do that. The story is still absolutely traveling in the direction they’ve decided, and that they ― along with George R.R. Martin ― have wanted it to go. There’s no sense of pandering to anybody else, but they’re confident enough to give those little nods here and there, and I think people are going to really dig it.

What theory about Gendry did you find wackiest?

I love the theory that he might be the one rowing past and pick up Theon in terms of just really going, “Yeah, he has been rowing the whole time.” If they were bold enough, had the balls to do that, I’d be astounded.

What was it like finally being back on set?

It certainly takes a few days of filming to feel comfortable again and at ease, and at home on such a huge production. But it’s been great. It’s been so nice. When you do get that comfort back, it’s almost like you never really left. There are these tiny little things that are a bit different, a few things slightly different now because the interest in the show has grown and grown and grown. There’s a lot more security around scripts and call sheets, and your character name. You have a code name on a call sheet. Unless you knew everybody’s code name, you wouldn’t be able to account which characters are in the scene, and that was just totally alien to me.

Are you all keeping the same code names, or could you reveal it?

Of course not! I mean, I just got my job back. [Laughs] I don’t want to get sacked again. But, yeah, they’re interesting. They’re inventive.

Hopefully we can hear those one day.

Oh, dude, the second Season 8 is over, I’m selling the lot.

Jon Gorrigan

Now that Gendry’s back, what do you think an Arya and Gendry reunion might be like?

That’s been the amazing thing to watch about this season so far. It’s very deliberate, seeing the Stark children and the shit they’ve been through and how that has affected them all.

Sansa seems to be the rational one whose eyes we’re seeing all this through. The joy you’re seeing and then the slow realization that, “Oh, my god. That’s really not the brother that I knew, and that’s not the sister that I remember.” They’ve seen terrible things, and they’ve had experiences that have changed them forever, and there’s bound to be some of that with Gendry seeing Arya again ― if it was to happen.

As well, we don’t know what might have happened to Gendry in intervening periods. His experience with Melisandre, as you’ll see later in this season, is still something that rankles with him, something that he’s maybe not quite able to get over in his mind. These things are all happening at quite formative ages, so I think it’d be great to see them cross paths again. I have no idea what it would be like, but I think they must carry some torch for each other. I think they crossed paths at that time where they were both searching for something, and they kind of found it in each other a little bit. I think Gendry really reminded Arya of her brothers back up in Winterfell, who she was missing greatly. Then Arya trusting Gendry with the information that she was who she was. I’m filling in my own blanks here, but I don’t imagine that Gendry ever felt that he’d been trusted like that before by anybody, and maybe the first time in his life that he was given real purpose ― the purpose being to keep a secret ― but he’s like, “Oh, someone actually trusted me with a task that’s really fucking important,” and the fact that interacting with highborns is something Gendry’s never done before, so it was almost the beginning of opening his eyes, and being conscious that there is much more out there than what he has known his entire life. There is a bond there, and I hope they get to cross paths again at some point.

Yeah, plus she was around for your shirtless scene, so at least the gym was working for you there.

[Laughs] I was disingenuous before when I said it was pointless to have my top off. The idea of that scene, yeah, I mean David and Dan were like, “Look, it’s more about Arya than it is about Gendry. She’s becoming a young woman and is noticing things and feeling things like she hasn’t felt before.” Whether the romantic storyline is one they chose to pursue or not, I have no idea.

I used to get asked about that quite a lot when we were doing Seasons 1 through 3, and it was never something that I ever felt massively comfortable talking about because at the time I was a 25-year-old actor talking about a 14-year-old girl, and I sort of felt like, “Look, I know what you’re saying. I know what you’re getting at, but what do you want me to say about that? ‘Oh, yeah, no, I really hope we hook up?’” So that’s something I’ve given a great amount of thought to, really, and it’s been years. I’ll be interested to see what David and Dan have in store.