You may not know what, exactly, just happened to Theon Greyjoy on this weeks episode of Game of Thrones. But you do know one thing: Whatever that was, it wasnt good. After confessing his deepest, darkest secrets including the fact that Bran and Rickon Stark are alive and at large, since hed killed two innocent kids instead to the random underling he thought was his savior, said underling stabbed him in the back, returning him to the same torture chamber he thought hed just escaped. In the words of Walter Sobczak, hes entering a world of pain.
But for actor Alfie Allen, Theons return is a chance to reenter the outside world. Following his blow-to-the-back-of-the-head cliffhanger in Season Two, Theons fate was very much a mystery, one that Allen had a hard time keeping under wraps particularly given all the darkness hes been forced to explore.
Youve been shrouded in quite a lot of secrecy this season.
Im really bad at keeping secrets, so it was pretty hard. There was a press thing going on after the premiere in L.A., and I wasnt allowed to go on that. You know, its got its positives, but its quite annoying having to keep tight-lipped about it. Then again, playing the game is quite fun.
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Your storyline ended rather abruptly last season, to the point where people dont really even know what happened. Theon gets knocked out, and the next thing we know, Winterfells a smoldering ruin.
A lot of people thought I was dead after the second series. I would speak to people and theyd say, What are you up to? and Id say Ive just been shooting the third season of Game of Thrones, and theyd be like, What? Its really annoying, because I ruined it for people, do you know what I mean?
Youre a human spoiler.
Yeah, exactly.
How early on in the making of the series did you know Theon was headed down this road?
To be honest, it was only when I got the script for Season Three. I read the first two books, and then I got halfway through the third one, and that was ages ago. [in a low voice] Basically, once my character wasnt in it, I wasnt interested. They get to all [Theons] stuff later, and weve pulled it forward. David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss, the shows creators] were like, Ah, mate, youre going to be sad to see what happens to you next season.
People are going to hopefully feel sorry for Theon. Its slowly been edging toward that. I think theres a minority of people that do, and now I think people are seeing that hes on the path to redemption, in a very fucked-up way. [Laughs]
The meatiest stuff in this episode was Theons conflicted feelings about the Starks.
Thats what it was all about. There was some plot stuff in there as well about the two boys, but yeah, its all very deep-rooted in the second series. He was just trying to impress his father, or just impress anyone, really to prove to himself whether he was a Greyjoy or a Stark. Now I think he realizes that hes just Theon. [Laughs] He doesnt have to be either.
When you look at Theons situation, where do you come down on what he wound up doing? Do you find fault with it? Aside from the child-murdering, of course, which Id hope you do.
I would say that the worse thing he does is the kids, yeah, but I definitely think hes just trying to prove himself in a really fucked-up way. With the child-murdering . . . Ill be honest with you, mate. When I was shooting it, I had a bit of a problem. Theres this look of regret that I gave when the bodies of the two children bodies get raised on the ropes. I look torn about it. And I always thought Theon would just enjoy playing the trick on the whole village. Thats how I wouldve liked to have played it. Then we sat down with David and Dan and [director] David Nutter and decided that there needed to be some sort of regret there, to make it morally correct. But I always thought for Theon that he would just sort of enjoy playing the trick on Winterfell.
Yeah, and now he himself is the victim of a pretty colossal trick.
[Laughs] Definitely. Iwan Rheon [the actor who plays Theons fake-out savior] is great. Hes fucking brilliant. Theres more to reveal on that side of things. People whove read the books have sort of figured out whats going on, but I think people who havent will see what that relationship evolves into. A lot of people who havent read the books were looking at that relationship like Oh, its so sweet, its so lovely, and then weve completely shattered their dreams of the possibility of something nice happening. Im really excited to see some of it, because when I was filming we were getting some good stuff there.
Its indicative of how badly Theon needed to be understood by anyone that he pours his heart out to this total stranger, even if he did save his life.
He wants to be everyones friend. [Laughs] He just wants to be accepted, by anyone, at this point especially. He just sort of spills his guts to this guy I guess hes doing it to himself more than anything, you know what I mean? These thoughts have been whizzing around in his head, and theres this boy there to just sort of listen to him and be his friend and help him get it out, or so he thinks. It dont turn out that way. [Laughs]
I hope people are sort of realizing is that hes quite a realistic character. The themes with him are just so universal to so many people. Hes got the estranged relationship with his father, hes got an older sister those are pretty universal themes that I definitely hope I put some real feelings into.
Finally, is that cross comfortable?
[Very seriously] No. Not at all. Ive got to be careful what I say, but it wasnt comfortable. Ive got a knee injury as well, so it didnt help. It really was demoralizing at times. It was hard. It was really, really hard. I would spend probably about an hour and a half to two hours just tied to that cross, and it wasnt nice. But whatever I just get on with it and I use it. And Iwan was really great as well. When we were doing it, he was always there. Hed just talk to me. I didnt have to do any acting toward a double.
There was definitely some stuff going on in my life then which I used as well. Theres a scene later on where I basically just fucking broke down. I remember Iwan, on the day, didnt really know if he should continue or if he should stop, because I was really really, really breaking down. Thats one scene Im definitely excited to see.