There are certainly many, many things to celebrate on Game of Thrones. The grandiose directing, sharp writing, intense performances, and gorgeous costumes are just a few elements that come to mind. But one that probably doesn’t get instantly recognised is the prosthetic work.
How do the White Walkers become the White Walkers? How does the Night King get those wonderful horns? Why does Greyscale look so frigging gross? All praise to Game of Thrones’ incredible prosthetics team — the artists who hand-make all these enhancements and then painstakingly, seamlessly place them on the actors.
Below, HBO gives those rarely recognised miracle workers a little love with an excellent behind the scenes video. The clip not only has some of your favourite moments from the series so far, but some broad teases about prosthetics for season eight as well.
Of all the impressive and terrifying numbers given in that video, the one that stands out to me is the potential hour or two to take off the prosthetics. You never think of that, right? We always hear stories of actors being in makeup chairs for six to eight hours before they even get in front of the camera—but imagine going through that process, filming for 12 hours, then being dead tired and still having another two hours to remove everything…only to do it all again the next day? Brutal.
As if you already didn’t know, Game of Thrones comes back April 15.