Diana Rigg was a legendary actor who knew how to live up to her Game Of Thrones nickname.
Dame Diana – who died last week after being diagnosed with cancer in March – played Olenna Tyrell aka the Queen of Thorns in the hit fantasy show.
And her whip-smart attitude didn’t stop when the camera ceased rolling, journalist James Hibberd wrote in his upcoming Game Of Thrones oral history, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon.
The spirited Diana “terrified” the directors on set, choosing to do things her own way rather than take suggestions, and she once even succeeded in shortening her on-screen duties, James wrote in a new Entertainment Weekly story.
The anecdote came from season six in a scene in which Olenna Tyrell told the Sand Snakes to “shut up” and “let the grown women speak.”
Jessica Henwick, who played Nymeria Sand, recalled that Diana walked on set and announced that she was ready to shoot even before the scene was done being set up. A cameraman tried to explain that things weren’t ready, but Diana wouldn’t hear it.
″She interrupted him and said, ‘Roll the cameras!’ And she just started doing her lines,” James said.
After two takes, Diana was told it was time for a close-up. But she had other plans. She stood up and said she was done, then walked off, James recalled.
Now, she can’t walk fast. She has to be helped. So basically we just sat there and watched as Diana Rigg effectively did her own version of storming off the set, but it was at 0.1 miles per hour. She cracked me up. I loved her.
Both on camera and off, the Queen of Thorns did whatever the heck she wanted.
After Diana’s death, her Game Of Thrones co-stars posted tributes: Lena Headey said she was “witty and ferocious,” and Nathalie Emmanuel called her “an icon and powerhouse.”
Cheers to you, Diana Rigg. As co-star Pedro Pascal proclaimed, you were “the true queen of Westeros.”