I bet I can make you start crying in three words. You ready? “Hold the door.”
The story of how Wylis became Hodor is one of the most emotional and tragic scenes in the history of Game of Thrones (a show that’s well versed in all things emotional and tragic). But when teenage actor Sam Coleman auditioned to play “large Stable boy – about 10-12 yrs old,” he didn’t realize how crucial the role would be, or what “hold the door” meant.
“The audition was a weird one,” said Coleman in a Reddit AMA. “When I arrived, the waiting room was full of chubby 13/14 year olds sitting with their mothers or chaperones… and then there was me… 18 year old me… sitting on my own… out of place… like a walrus at a beach party.” He added, “Anyway, I did the audition and then left thinking, ‘oh well, that was a fun experience’… a week later I got a phone call from my agent and, well, the rest is history.”
When Coleman, who guesses he was “hodoring for a good half an hour or so,” was asked if he was given any character backstory, he responded, “Not really, just got told that someone shouts hold the door in the future.”
Were you a fan of the show before acting in it? If you were, you should’ve known that the large stable boy was Hodor during casting.
Yes! And, you’d be surprised! The way they put it in the casting brief, it may not have been. Besides, who would’ve suspected flashbacks let alone a Hodor flashback back then?!
And now I’m crying all over again. R.I.P. Hodor.
(Via Reddit)
