Game of Thrones: Sean Bean revisits Ned Stark's death scene 10 years later

As Game of Thrones nears its 10th anniversary, actor Sean Bean has looked back on the shocking death scene of his character, Ned Stark. The honorable man was killed in Baelor, episode nine of the first season of the series.

In a new interview, Bean spoke about what was going through his head moments before Ned Stark lost his lif, in a violent scene that introduced fans to what the show had in store for them.

He told Entertainment Weekly, "It was horror and disbelief — that Joffrey changed his mind [about exiling Ned] — and then resignation and [realizing that he was] seeing his daughter for the last time, Arya." He added, "I was trying to think of all four [things]. It wasn't just, 'Oh God, I'm getting my head chopped off.' Those mix of feelings is what made it what it was, I suppose."

About filming the scene, he said, "It took like a whole day or so to film it and you so you have to just keep focused on the fact that you're about to meet your death without messing around. I was very hot at the time, so that probably helped. And everybody else's reactions were fantastic — Cersei and the kids. It was very moving with a lot of pathos in that scene. Then I put my head in the block and I was finished for the day."

In a book about the making of Game of Thrones, titled Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, the episode's director, Alan Taylor, had said that just before his head was chopped off, Bean whispered something to himself. "[Bean] asked somebody what an appropriate prayer would be for somebody of his belief. People have tried to guess what he said, but it’s something private Sean created based on that," he'd said.

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Game of Thrones ended its run with a critically derided but widely felicitated final season in 2019. Multiple spin-offs are in various stages of production.

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