Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones" season seven.
"Game of Thrones" season seven has brought together more characters than we could have imagined, including finally putting Varys in the same room as Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Melisandre.
INSIDER spoke with Conleth Hill, the man behind The Spider, about his character's surprisingly simple motivations ("the realm") and why he's tired of hearing people say Varys is a merman ("I really don't get it").
Kim Renfro: On the second episode, "Stormborn," Varys had a confrontation with Daenerys over his loyalties. What was it like filming a conversation with Emilia Clarke?
Conleth Hill: That was very exciting. Had you not done that scene people would have gone 'well why did she take him on her team so easily?' And we couldn't do it in Meereen because she was off with the Dothraki and I was off, according to some people 'mermaiding around' with Olenna and the rest, so it was nice that we had it as soon as we got there — where she was born.
Renfro: You brought up 'mermaiding around' — are you sick of people asking you if Varys is a merman?
Hill: Yes. I don't get it. I really don't get it. I mean I'm not annoyed or anything, I think it's funny, but I really don't know where it comes from. I think someone got too stoned one night and came up with it.
I think, as in real life, in fiction if people don't know enough about someone they will either accept it or, if they're slightly less goodwilled, people will make things up. I think lots of things were made up about Varys by others in the books, and also by people in real life it seems. I don't know where the source of that is, where the beginning of that rumor came from, but it does make me laugh.
Renfro: I think the first time I saw it was on a Reddit discussion thread about crazy fan theories.
Hill: It makes me laugh. When we did press for the premiere I got asked about that 17 times in a row and so by the end I was a bit impatient, but I think it's genuinely funny, but has no basis in truth. Wait and see and next season I'll be tutored by Patrick Duffy. [Patrick Duffy is an actor who starred in a 1970s television series about a merman called "Man from Atlantis."]
Renfro: I hope there's just a random blooper scene and HBO gets a merman costume for you just to mess with people.
Hill: Yeah [the theory] started because they'd never seen my legs and I'm going "What? What about my pointy shoes? You can't get a fishtail into that."
Renfro: And we did see his legs very clearly in the recent episode, "The Queen's Justice," when he was on that cliff talking with Melisandre.
Hill: Ah, do you know what? I'm standing at my front door now talking to you Kim and I can see Fair Head, where that was filmed. And so it's yet another travel log for the beauty of the place where I live and I'm very proud of that.
Renfro: Dragonstone has been gorgeous this season, but Varys and Melisandre's conversation was unsettling. He only seems to get rattled by Red Priestesses — first Kinvara, and now Melisandre.
Hill: Let me put it like this: If someone from a faction or a sect or a religion or cult dismembered you and left you for dead, wouldn't you hate them? To me that's very reasonable behavior and also I think the combination of that — a total mistrust of them and what they do — plus the fact that they know things about him freaks him out because he's the one who knows things about everybody else.
Hill: And they seem to have some insight into what he went through, and to our eyes as viewers we've only ever seen Varys talking to Tyrion about it. So that's a mystery — how do they know? There must be some link.
I always know people who really watch the show and people who don't really watch it because they'll go 'oh you're sneaky' because they just take what people said about him in the first season, whereas if they watch it they know that he's been consistent in his dislike for the red priestesses and priests, and magic and sorcery.
If you look at him talking to Ned in the first season, Ned's going "Who do you work for?" and he says "The realm." So I think if he's a liar then he's been a consistently good liar. But to me it makes sense.
Renfro: Qyburn seemed to take control of Varys' "little birds" — the children who feed him information and even kill on his behalf. Does Varys have any of his own "little birds" in Westeros now?
Hill: I don't know, you'll have to wait and see. He hasn't mentioned them so far, but maybe next episode there will be a mention of them. It'll be interesting to see how that develops, if it develops. Because if Qyburn is taking over his network, will that affect the information that he gets and how he gets it? So yeah, lots to look into, but he's just got a genuine fondness for the victim and the underdog and the poor and the hungry.
Renfro: And given that, do you think he's still a power player? Or will he take more of a sideline approach since Daenerys is in Westeros now?
Hill: I don't think he was ever a big power player — I think all the decisions that were made in recent history weren't made by him, but he was certainly there to advise on how to react to certain decisions and those big confrontations.
So choosing Tyrion to bring to [Daenerys], he's almost like a headhunter in a careers firm rather than the boss of everything. I don't think he ever wanted to be, by his own admission. He said very early on, in season two or three, "I don't want to sit on the Iron Throne I must be one of the few people in the Seven Kingdoms who doesn't want to sit on the Iron Throne," and I genuinely believe that he's not interested in that. He's just making a better world for everybody else.
"Game of Thrones" season seven continues on Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO. In the meantime, catch up with 11 details you might have missed on the latest episode.
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