Because of his ruthlessness and sadistic nature, nobody was sad to see Ser Meryn Trant (Ian Beattie) die in "Game of Thrones" season 5, and the fact that his character was killed off by Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) even made his last scene in the show quite memorable.
Beattie deplores his character, and has called Meryn a "coward," "bully," and a "thug." The only redeeming quality he had was his loyalty to Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), the actor said, but that does not mean that saying goodbye to his role and "Game of Thrones" family had been easy for him.
"It was one of the worst experiences of my professional career. It was absolutely awful to say goodbye to it. Although in saying goodbye, both David Benioff and Dan Weiss gave me two scenes that any actor would kill for - along with a death at the end of it that I think everybody who saw it will remember. So I was extraordinarily grateful for that," he told Hypable.
In fact, after they wrapped up his last scene, Beattie got so emotional that he had tears on his eyes. "Thank God I was wearing the prosthetics, and they couldn't actually see me blubbering! But it's like being told you can't come back to your family again. You can't come back to this wonderful, incredible, large, extraordinary, talented, slightly dysfunctional family. And it's awful, it's awful," he said.
Beattie recalls the first time he ever read about his character, and how he struggled to find out how to portray someone who enjoys beating up children. "How do we bring this monster to life - how do we make this monster human?" he questioned.
The actor thinks that they did a successful job nailing Meryn, and he even considers his stint with "Game of Thrones" as the best acting he has ever done in his career.
"There weren't too many positives about him, but it was making him real, and that was the real challenge. I'm quite proud of the fact that, certainly for most of the viewers, even the ones who were cheering and shouting and screaming at my death, I was very pleased with that. And I was very proud that the viewers felt that way," he said.
Even Beattie's own friends managed to separate him from the character he's playing, and were one with other "Game of Thrones" fans in cheering for his death.
