Game Of Thrones Actor Reveals How To Become An Extra On The Show

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An actor who has become a firm fixture in Game of Thrones, has revealed how you can increase your own chances of appearing on the show… 

Denis Halligan came across the – now mammoth – show as a relatively unknown project and decided to audition, reports The Independent.

He has now played a whole host of roles including Nico in season 1 and one of Arya’s kidnappers along with Thoros in season 3.

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Extras can’t really talk about much of what happens on set due to strict non-disclosure agreements, and Denis says some of the time even he didn’t know what was going on.

He told The Independent:

This will sound weird, but during filming I didn’t know where I was most of the time!

A car would come to pick us up at 5:30am and drive us to the set. So a lot of the time, I just didn’t know where I was for filming.

DenisHalligan.com

Denis also said that – although it sounds fun – the filming schedule can be pretty tough. 

A standard day is 12 hours. I’d typically start at 5:30am, kicking off with an hour in costume.

One of the most intense days was filming the fight in season 3 between The Hound and Beric Dondarrion. In the final cut, it lasts just a few minutes in the episode but for filming we had to shoot every single day for a week.

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Although Denis has a background in acting, he says a growing number of extras have no acting experience – they’re just die-hard fans.

And his advice for anyone who fancies appearing in the next series: 

Grow your hair! I had long hair anyway – I looked a bit medieval!

Also, keep an eye out for open casting calls which are advertised on Facebook and local media. They have big, open calls that you can enter.

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One potential problem though – you have to be based in Northern Ireland: 

There was one guy I worked with recently though who was from London and relocated to Belfast during filming just to do it, that’s real commitment.

So there you go – grow your hair, move to Northern Ireland and keep your ear to the ground. An affinity for dragons and a thirst for blood will probably be handy too…

UNILAD