Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Talks His Shocking 'Game of Thrones' Moment

“Game of Thrones” fans who have not read the books were shocked on last week’s episode, when, Spoiler alert! Jamie Lannister’s sword hand was chopped clean off by Locke.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who also appears in “Oblivion,” out this week, spoke to Vulture about the horror of the scene, the future of his character, and Jamie’s soft spot for Brienne.

On preparing for the scene where his hand get lopped off, Coster-Waldau said:

"You try not to prepare too much for a scene like that, because you want to trick yourself into absolutely not seeing it coming, but there was a lot of thought going into it, what it means… But this is his sword hand. This is going to change his life. So there's the shock, and on top of that, he's lost a lot of blood, and there's the question of whether he can survive the loss of his hand, because it's probably going to get infected.”

Coster-Waldau admits, “Even though I play Jaime, I sympathize with Locke, because it must be an unfair world on so many levels, and for someone to assume it's just his birthright to get what he wants…  But then again, I don't think you have to chop off his hand. That's just pure cruelty.”

What about the future of Jamie Lannister?

“I love all the scenes that come after this. It deals with those questions: Who is Jaime? Will this force him to take a good look at himself? This is a world driven by fear, and suddenly he's not dangerous anymore.”

When asked why he thought his character saved Brienne, Coster-Waldau says:

“I'm not sure he really knows why, but there is something about her. She has dignity, she has pure morals, and she's someone you can trust... He didn't respect her at first, but he respects her now.... Their relationship isn't about an attraction, but about two people meeting and in many ways seeing themselves in the other person.”

And finally… the prop hand.

 “It's disgusting," he says. "I kept imagining the smell — ugh! It's my hand, a cast of my hand, and it even has the weight of a hand, and they add all this blood and grease, so it looks real, even up close. But it's not something I would want to have: ‘Hey, my hand!’”

You can read the full article here. What did you think about last night’s “Game of Thrones” shocker?