Game Of Thrones (2015)—“Doran Martell”
AVC: You mentioned it offhandedly when we were talking about Da Vinci’s Demons, but how did you enjoy the Game Of Thrones experience?
AS: It was great fun, actually. I was expecting it to be. [Laughs.] I don’t think I’ve been more hyped to do a role, ever. I seemed at that point to be the only beneficiary of any public attention before the run-up to season five for some reason. It was, like, everybody’s focus was on the fact that I was in the show. It must’ve been incredibly disappointing, because I was in it for five minutes all season. And I’ll probably be in it for five minutes more this season! Nevertheless, I was very well heralded, and everybody knew I was coming, to put it mildly. And it was great!
It was beautiful in Seville. I knew it was going to be a smooth operation, and it was. And the producers are just adorable. You know, they’re the kind of producers who are so successful that they can afford to be really chill and really nice and go out to dinner with you and make sure that you’re eating properly and do all that sort of stuff. They were really, really great. And I’d worked exclusively with Nikolaj [Coster-Waldau], who plays [Jaime Lannister], the guy with the brass hand. Actually, I think it’s a gold hand. Anyway, that guy. [Laughs.] And he’s really nice: a family man, a normal guy who, if he stops for more than five seconds on the street, he gets swarmed. So he has to keep moving.
I remember being at a Starbucks in Seville… I know: “A Starbucks in Seville? What are you doing?” Nevertheless, there it was, and I was sitting there, and I was, like, “Hey, Nikolaj!” And he was, like, “Hey!” And he kept on moving, and I thought, “Well, that’s kind of rude.” And he clearly thought to himself, “Well, I think I’ve just been kind of rude,” so against his better instincts, he turned back toward my table to stand there and say “hey” properly to me… and that was his mistake. Because he’d stayed in one place for more than five seconds, before I knew it, 45 people had arrived and swarmed him. [Laughs.] And he went away with this swarm, like a bear who’d just taken a paw full of honey, off and down the streets of Seville, trying to shake these guys who’d just arrived from nowhere. So if I should ever see him in the street, I will never stop him to even acknowledge him, because I don’t want him to have to deal with that again!
http://www.avclub.com/article/alexander-siddig-being-bashir-quitting-24-and-gett-222045