Hypable caught up with Brendan Bradley, “the nicest doucebag on the internet,” aka Renly from School of Thrones. Listen to hear what he has to say about those sweet dance moves, his other projects, and much more!
We sat down with actor Brendan Bradley from the comedy webseries School of Thrones for a conversation about his turn as Renly Baratheon – and whether or not it will return for a second season!
Listen to the full interview:
Bradley, a big Game of Thrones fan himself, also talks about his expectations for the upcoming third season, his favourite characters, and much more. His other webseries projects are also discussed, including Hipsterhood and Walk of Shame, and the upcoming The Dark Knight Retires.
You can listen to the full interview right here, and check out some highlights from the conversation below:
Hypable: How did you get involved with School of Thrones?
Brendan Bradley: I was directing Marisha Ray (Melisandre) in Walk of Shame, and we were rehearsing in her living room when her boyfriend Matthew Mercer, one of the creators, came downstairs and said: “We’re doing this thing about Game of Thrones, do you wanna be in it?” So it was the easiest audition process in the world.
What’s it like finding yourself in the middle of this webseries movement?
It’s a lot of fun, and for me what’s exciting about it is that it never stops. The web just continues to grow, so especially on a project like School of Thrones, it was so cool to be on set and meet tons of artists that I’d known for years, like Maxwell Glick (Stannis), or artists like Ashley Birch (Dany), who does Hey Ash Whatcha Playin’, that I’d never even heard of before. So I love how it’s just constantly expanding, not just in LA but all over the world – it really is an international movement of creating your own content. That’s what the internet is all about, that direct connectivity where everybody can get involved.
When you came to School of Thrones, did they ask you to play Renly from the beginning?
When they originally asked me, I had no idea who I was playing. I think Matt was able to get out the words, “We’re doing a Game of Thrones–” and I was like “yes, whatever it is, I’m in! I’ll play a White Walker, let’s do it.” But apparently (writer) Zach Grafton wanted me for Renly. His vision of Renly from the books is this all-American badass, the guy who should have the throne and he just happens to have this one part of his personal life that makes him not as applicable. And I couldn’t believe how involved I was with the project.
As a Game of Thrones fan, how did it feel to do this love letter to the show, while poking fun at it in a nice way?
I’ve been involved with a lot of different parodies and satires, which is a genre that I love. Because to me, it’s paying homage to the original property. We love the original show, we’re not making fun of it. When I first moved to LA I was involved with a webseries called The Legend of Neil, which is a spoof/parody of The Legend of Zelda. So I love taking projects and ideas from games and movies that are such a part of my childhood and what I love, and then getting to turn them on their head.
I’m sorry, I just had a Legend of Neil fangirl moment…
It’s a great series! It was one of the earliest webseries that came out, it’s by Sandeep Parikh and had Felicia Day and Tony Janning… and I think a lot like what made School of Thrones successful is that it didn’t take itself seriously. We were constantly like, “this doesn’t make any sense, let’s go with it!” Or they’d make fun of the fact that the background was made out of cardboard. It was all about fun, and spoofing a video game we all loved from childhood.
It’s been interesting, seeing the mixed response to School of Thrones… a lot of people love it, but then you have the purists that just don’t want Game of Thrones to be fun.
I love that response. I want there to be people that are angry about it. To me, nothing fuels something better than a polarized audience. I’d rather people absolutely love it or absolutely hate it. It’s to the people that are like ‘meh’ about it that I’m like “No! Care! Feel something!” because we all put a lot of work into it. The important part is to feel something. So keep hating if you’re hating, and keep loving if you love.
Tell us some of your favourite experiences while filming School of Thrones.
For me, the takeaway from the show was working with Maxwell Glick and Matthew Boehm (Loras). That dance sequence was literally… they turned to Max and I and said, “Okay guys. Aaand dance!” and we just danced to no music, to a crowd of people cheering us on, for five minutes straight. And we are not really dancers, so for us to just come up with some dance moves… I think I did a handstand at one point, I tried to spin on the floor as if I was breakdancing, and Max tap danced. So there’s a lot of footage floating out there that I think would make a great blooper reel.
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