Alex Graves: For someone making a pilot, assuming the talent is there...

No, my favorite scene was Brienne finding Arya and The Hound. I thought that the writing and the dialogue and the confusion that spirals into the fight was such a cool scene. I knew I was gonna film it in Iceland and I did a lot of - I really scouted and climbed around Iceland to find those locations and I just couldn't wait to do that.

Alex Graves

iceland fighting writing

Obviously the highest pressure scene, I guess it might've been a tie - what was the bigger death, Tyrion with Shae, Tyrion wth Twyin, and then Joffrey were all scenes where I wanted to deliver what was in the script married to what fans will be expecting, and it was a lot of pressure and I'm really glad it's over.

Alex Graves

fans ties might

There weren't any deleted scenes, it was just a matter of tightening stuff. I didn't have any deleted scenes in what I did as far as I know. It's very unusual on Game of Thrones for there to be a deleted scene because the scripts are pretty locked in. There's rarely a reason to say, "Hey, we don't need this scene."

Alex Graves

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You can certainly shorten things and tighten things, we tightened up Jon's walk to Mance Rayder's tent. That was something that got tightened up a little bit because I had shot the hell out of that.

Alex Graves

tents hell littles

Because if you remember - and people forget this - the first two years of Game of Thrones everybody was going, "I don't know what's going on, but I really like it." And you really didn't know what to make of a lot of people, and now it's changed and people aren't really talking about that. Now it's like you're watching West Wing or Friends, you know the characters and you're like, "What in the world is going to happen?"

Alex Graves

talking character years

And one of the things that's interesting about how they're doing the show is that the audience almost knows more than the characters do in some of these scenes, and the extent of that is unique. So it's grown into a different show in a way. It's sort of grown into a different experience watching it.

Alex Graves

different-experiences unique character

Well my motto was "Never Monologue a Clegane", because Beric Dondarrion and Thoros were messing around with The Hound and Beric essentially got killed, even though he got to come back, and then the monologue is just a foolish thing to do. But it's also psychological state of mind, he can't get over his sister.

Alex Graves

psychological foolish mind

The whole mythology of Westeros begins with the struggle between the Children of the Forest and different warring factions before the first men arrive.

Alex Graves

struggle men children

When you finish writing the scripts they have time to take a breath and think about everything. There's just a little more time to think. Network does not allow for that.

Alex Graves

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'Game of Thrones' is the broadest of narratives. I don't know if anyone in the U.S. has done a story on such a large scale before, both in terms of what George R.R. Martin wrote and what's on the show.

Alex Graves

story game know done

You pull anyone from an alien planet down to Earth, and you want to show them great work, show them Tywin Lannister on 'Game of Thrones.' I mean, it's just as good as it gets.

Alex Graves

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I never seem to get past - I feel like a stupid guy from the Midwest.

Alex Graves

feel never stupid past

'Terra Nova,' more than anything I've ever done in my life, is for everybody.

Alex Graves

my-life more done life

For 'Game of Thrones,' I realized immediately that it was about the characters.

Alex Graves

characters realized about game

There's always the pressure on the director of how to transition from one scene to another, especially when it can really be oblique on 'Game of Thrones.'

Alex Graves

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Death is either an incredible ending to a story or, more often than not if you ask the right questions, it's the beginning of a story.

Alex Graves

ending beginning you death

I would do anything I could to try to make sure that Lena Headey wins an Emmy.

Alex Graves

sure make anything try

My experience on 'The West Wing' was, I think, now rare in that I was pretty young, and I walked into this environment where Aaron Sorkin was giving me a script every week, and Thomas Schlamme and John Wells were keeping the studio off my back, at least as best as they could.

Alex Graves

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It's funny because 'West Wing' is similar to 'Game of Thrones' in some ways, as it was very hard to pull off back then.

Alex Graves

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I was, and am, a frustrated filmmaker and film student, and my passion and love for movies was so broad that, in the earlier part of my career, I stumbled into doing 'Sports Night' and was a comedy director.

Alex Graves

passion love sports night

For someone making a pilot, assuming the talent is there and you can maneuver the system properly, it's just a matter of standing your ground and trying to make something great until you are making enough money for the studio that they let you keep making it.