Queen of Thrones’ Diana Rigg Stormed Off the Game of Thrones Set as a Prank

Veteran actress Diana Rigg had passed away, and though she was made famous as her role of Emma Peel in The Avengers, she was beloved by a new generation of fans as Olenna Tyrell, the Queen of Thorns in Game of Thrones. With the upcoming book, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon set for a release, there are some new anecdotes about what happened behind the scenes—one of them being a prank by Rigg on the crew.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Rigg had tried to prank the crew by showing up on the set and demanding the camera roll without any prep. Jessica Henwick, who played Nymeria Sand, shared:

"She walked onto the set, and she went, 'I'm ready now!'… A cameraman came over and went, 'Well, okay, but we haven't finished setting up.' She interrupted him and said, 'Roll the cameras!' And she just started doing her lines. She did two takes, and then the guy came over and was like, 'Great, now we're going to do a close-up.' And she just stood up and she went, 'I'm done!'"

"Now, she can't walk fast. She has to be helped. So basically we just sat there and watched as Diana Rigg effectively did her own version of storming off the set, but it was at 0.1 miles per hour. She cracked me up. I loved her."

If anything, Rigg had definitely left an impression on the cast, and everyone seemed to love her dry wit. Her frequent scene partner Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell) also shared, "She had a very dry sense of humor and was aware of the parody of herself. Sometimes I think she was mischievous to see what she could get away with."

While the show had ended on a sour note with fans, Rigg had managed to nab one of the more memorable character deaths in the series. Though she was a frail old woman, Olenna managed to be one of the more powerful players in the game. Showrunner D.B. Weiss shared, "Olenna was probably the only character to win her own death scene."

For more BTS stories, you can pick up Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon when it becomes available on Oct. 6.

Read Also: Game of Thrones' Queen of Thorns, Diana Rigg, has Passed Away