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Game Of Thrones' Liam Cunningham On How The 2016 Election Affected The Show

Not many shows can claim bragging rights to a body count longer than the Manhattan phone book, but HBO's fantasy-drama series Game of Thrones would be that rare exception. From the moment Ned Stark (Sean Bean) found his head so rudely divorced from the rest of his body in the first season, George R.R. Martin's baby never let you forget for a second that anyone — anyone — could be killed off at any time. Your favorites came with legit expiration dates, with the sands in the hourglass running on each of them.

So for Liam Cunningham's Davos Seaworth, just to have survived Sunday night's finale would be impressive enough; but when you consider that Davos' been alive and playing the game since 2012's Season 2, the feat is nearly jaw-dropping. Davos served as Hand of the King to Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane), Lord of Dragonstone, and claimant to the Iron Throne until Stannis's defeat and death at Winterfell; and now serves at the side of Jon Snow (Kit Harington).

With Game of Thrones having wrapped up its seventh season (the series' eighth and final season is rumored to not premiere until 2019), Cunningham sat down to cover a number of topics with Variety:

● The U.S. Presidential Election of 2016 was a topic of discussion on their set; and in a weird way, Game of  Thrones fans have Donald Trump to thank for just how powerful Jon Snow's speech ended up being:

"That speech that Jon Snow gave about the nature of lies and what's been said, and what happens if we don't stick to our word — we filmed that on exactly the day that a certain POTUS was elected and it had incredible resonance while we were filming it."

"The results had just been announced the morning we filmed that particular scene — that particular day of that scene with Mr. Kit Harington. We may have been rehearsing that scene. But that was the first time that Kit Harington had said those words on that platform in that scene. So it had a certain resonance, I'm sure you'll understand."

● Cunningham isn't surprised that Davos has made it this far — he's surprised that anyone's made it this far:

"I'm surprised that anybody made it this far — especially when you think that the rules were changed essentially at the end of season one when Ned Stark died and people looked at the TV and said, 'There's something wrong here. These people are not playing by the rules.' As we've gone on, nobody's safe. You're watching Daenerys, you're watching Jon Snow, you're watching Cersei. Anybody could go at any stage. That's one of the glorious things about the show. It can put us on the edge of our seats because nobody is safe."

● Cunningham believes Davos would have a very "Oh well, it could be worse," attitude towards the incest issues:

"I tried to think of a funny answer for what Davos would do if he were in the room when the word about Jon comes out. I think the character of Davos would probably turn around and go, 'Well, at least she's not your sister.'"

● If there was one change to Davos that Cunningham appreciated the most this season, it was allowing him to show his lighter side at times:

"It's nice that the writers have allowed Davos to show this side, that he has a sense of humor about him. We didn't see that when he was with Stannis. And that gorgeous scene that I had with the fermented-crab Viagra. That was really fun, because we got to see Davos the smuggler."

● Davos has a special quality about him that allows him to aid and counsel men as diverse as Stannis and Snow, and it's one that Cunningham feels makes him unique:

"One of the reasons that Davos seems to have become sort of a fan favorite is because he's a straight shooter. He's got a decency about him. He has loyalty. But also he doesn't have a desire power. He doesn't have that addictive personality that requires validation by being the boss, by being in control."

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