Filming The Clegane Bowl Was Brutal, According To Game Of Thrones' Rory McCann

Although "Game of Thrones" had a less-than-ideal final season, one thing fans have to admit is that the show never shied away from adapting some of the book series' most significant events. The HBO series gained popularity by staying faithful to the source material, which included killing characters without hesitation and showing off the massive battles that plagued Westeros. Some of the show's most notable fights included the Battle of the Bastards, Hardhome, The Mountain and the Viper, and Blackwater.

While most of the fight scenes in "Game of Thrones" looked incredible, filming them was no easy task. Some sequences required months of rigorous training and days of filming to nail down. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "Game of Thrones" stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam gave a look into how his team crafted many of the show's fantastic fight scenes. Rowley, who led the stunt team for Seasons 5, 6, 7, and 8, revealed just how challenging the battles were to film, saying, "We're trying to make it look as dangerous as possible, but we also try to keep it as safe as possible."

Actors Pedro Pascal and Hafthor Julius Bjornsson spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about what it was like filming their fight between The Mountain and the Viper. The duo agreed that filming was brutal and required extensive training and rehearsal. Pascal recalled spending much of his free time during Season 4 preparing for the battle. Bjornsson, who regularly competed for World's Strongest Man, said the training and filming of the scene was some of the hardest work he's ever done.

Bjornsson was featured in another notorious "Game of Thrones" fight, the Clegane Bowl, whose filming brought completely new challenges, actor Rory McCann revealed.

"Game of Thrones" sets Sandor and Gregor Clegane on a path toward each other from the beginning. However, it took until Season 8 for fans to finally get the Clegane Bowl. 

As part of "Making Game of Thrones," Rory McCann sat down with HBO to discuss how Clegane Bowl came to be. The Scottish actor recalled the final read-through of the script with the entire cast and that he couldn't wait to get to the Clegane Bowl, revealing he was just as excited as the fans. 

The fight itself took a lot of preparation to film perfectly. McCann said the set took months to build, and since the battle took place on a staircase, there was fear that either of the massive men could slip and get hurt. It turns out that fighting the strongest man in the world is just as terrifying as you would imagine. "I had the stuntmen saying to the strongest man in the world, 'When you pick up Rory, just throw him at half strength onto the wall over there,' and I'm going, 'Woah, woah, woah, that's still a lot of brute force, can we go down to 10 percent maybe?' So I was a bit battered and bruised," McCann recalled.

McCann wasn't the only one suffering while filming, as Bjornsson had to deal with the zombie prosthetics covering his face. McCann reflected how his costar had trouble eating and drinking while on set, all while sweating underneath the prosthetics. He only had praise for his on-screen brother, saying, "I had to encourage him to strangle me more, to press into my eyes more; he's absolutely a big gentle man and aware of his strength, thank God. He's a great guy, and it was a legendary fight."