Gwendoline Christie says starring in ‘Game of Thrones’ helped her deal with body insecurities.
The 38-year-old, 6′ 3" actress packed on 28lbs of muscle to play Brienne of Tarth in the HBO fantasy series and admitted that completely changing her look forced her to confront her issues with her appearance.
Speaking to Newsweek International, she said: "I remember when I had my hair cut off, the armor, the mud … I completely changed the way that I looked. I knew I had to overcome the things that I was uncomfortable with, like my androgyny, my height, my physical strength, feeling like an outsider, being told I was an outsider. It’s definitely given me more confidence."
And Gwendoline loves playing strong women on-screen because she never understood why women are portrayed as being secondary to men.
She explained: "Even when I was very young, I didn’t understand why the women had to have the boring parts. I didn’t understand why the women had to be submissive. They predominantly seemed to be of one type–they were often beautiful, but I didn’t understand the relationship between virgin or w***e, mother or sex object."
Gwendoline is sworn to secrecy on what is in store for her ‘Game of Thrones’ character in the upcoming final 13 episodes but did give some clues.
She said: "I have to speak generally. ‘Game of Thrones’ is famous for different characters coming together with unlikely consequences. And what’s recurrent in Brienne’s life is forming relationships with people that start with an opposing force, then a begrudging mutual respect and, out of that, a deep respect and pure love. That happens again this season. Brienne will realize a deep alliance."