‘I knew Game of Thrones was very big in India’: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau aka Jaime Lannister on being recognized at Rameshwaram Cafe

“India was very intense. It was everything. There was sensory overload every day. I now understand why you guys are famous for finding inner peace because you have to. Because every day is complete madness in India,” confesses Nikolaj, adding, “But what a beautiful country, beautiful people. We’re very grateful for those three weeks.”

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau at Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru. Image Source: Instagram

Nikolaj is so synonymous with Jaime Lannister that when the first look of his character Duke William in Michael Robert Johnson’s historical epic show King & Conqueror came out, the audience was quick to conclude that he looks like a splitting image of his Game of Thrones character.

“It’s the same person. It’s me playing the character, so there got to be similarities. But it’s a completely different story and character. Yes, it’s me playing it, but it’s someone else,” says Nikolaj. “Obviously, I can understand there are similarities. For me, it’s no more different than the eight cops I’ve played in my career. They have the same job, but the stories are very different,” argues Nikolaj.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Duke William in King & Conqueror.

However, he doesn’t see Jaime Lannister as a “curse” because that’s the very role that’s landed him parts in shows like King & Conqueror. But to him, the audience comparing each new role to Lannister is a bit of a stretch. “When you watch the same actor in a new movie this week, you don’t go, ‘Hey, it’s the same person from that movie last week, then why is he acting differently?’ You don’t do that because you understand it’s a piece of fiction. So obviously, I don’t think anyone’s going to have a problem with this one,” declares Nikolaj, promptly adding with a shrug of shoulders, “But if they do, then, what can I say?”

King & Conqueror, streaming in India on JioHotstar, is set in 11th-century England, when William, Duke of Normandy, competes with his once-ally and now-rival, Prince Harold, the Earl of Wessex, to compete for the heirless throne of England. As William turns out to be the eventual victor by leading the historic Norman Conquest, Nikolaj attributes his rise to a “combination of factors.”

“It’s a combination of things. He’s a very good military commander. Also, he has a very unique connection to his wife Matilda. She has qualities that are very different from William, but together, they’re formidable. She’s a very skilled politician. She really understands how to use that skillset. That union is at the core of why they were so successful, not just in 1066, but also in the years after the show,” he points out.

Also Read — Sophie Turner admits there should be trigger warnings for her infamous Game of Thrones rape scene: ‘But we were doing a lot of justice to women’

While James Norton initially wanted to play the eventual victor William, he couldn’t land the part because of a rather strange contractual clause. As per a contract by HBO, James Norton, who plays Hugo Swann in Joss Whedon’s sci-fi show The Nevers, Norton could only sign up to play characters in other shows who are written to die in the same season. “I did read that he said that somewhere. I didn’t know that. I had a lot of fun playing William. So it’s a good thing he stepped aside,” admits Nikolaj, in true-blue king-slaying Jaime Lannister fashion.

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