Alexander Siddig was beyond thrilled when he scored the role of Doran Martell on Game of Thrones. I remember when he was cast, and he happily posted a bunch of stuff on his social media, and you could just tell that he was a huge fan of the show. But when the Dorne storylines were introduced, everyone just felt… underwhelmed. It was like there was no life behind that part of the story. Some of the actors – like Siddig – did the best they could with the material, but basically everyone hated the Dorne storylines on the show. So what was Siddig’s overall impression of his time on the show? Well, as it turns out, he has lots of thoughts. He spoke to Startrek.com and this interview is being widely discussed as Siddig “slamming” the show. But there is some kind of context.

On the secrecy around GOT: “I think the secrecy is kind of understandable, but also there is an element of hype about it that makes it… the more secretive it is, the more special it is. And certainly Game of Thrones plays that. They misinform the crowd and they give them tidbits to send them in wrong directions. So, for example, last season, I believe that the first few episodes were stolen and downloaded online, and everybody got to see them before the show actually aired, and everybody was furious at HBO and whatnot. I don’t know if you remember. I am almost positive that those four episodes were leaked by HBO themselves. So there is an enormous amount of spin going on. I can’t tell you that for sure; that’s just my opinion, but it’s games; everybody’s playing these games.”

He felt like Doran was killed off early: “It’s funny, I’m not really sure what happened there. I was contracted to do at least four episodes this season, but then I was in L.A. doing publicity for something else, and I got a call at the Chateau Marmont and there were familiar voices on the other end of the phone. It was one of those guys, and because they didn’t introduce themselves it was like, “Hi, it’s me.” I was like, “Is that David or Daniel?” Anyway, they said, “You know what this phone call is about.” I was like, “Yeah, well, I guess I do.” “So we were going to kill you off at the end of last season, but we decided that we’re going to have to kill you off at the beginning of next season.” I was like, “Okay, life goes on.” But there was something wrong about that because I had been contracted for four episodes in the following season, so if they were going to kill me off at the end of the last season why would they contract me for those four episodes? Because it costs them money whether I do them or not, so it’s not great business sense to do it just in case.”

He still doesn’t know what went wrong: “So something happened; I have no idea what. There was an enormous amount of fan excitement when I got named to be on the show, and everyone was like, “Oh my god, yes, Doran Martell. He’s going to be great as Doran Martell.” That might have been the kiss of death. Maybe they didn’t want quite that much attention on that character. Maybe they thought, “Well, let’s prove that we’re going to stray from the books. We’re going to do something else, and he will be our first example of that.” So maybe that could have been the case. Or maybe I just screwed up. Maybe I said the wrong thing to the wrong person.

But he’s fine with being off the show now: “But I know that, from an actor’s point of view, professionally you don’t want to be on a show like that for too long, unless you are one of the top leads who originated the show, because your schedule gets kind of messed up. You don’t earn as much as you would if you were doing another show, because they’re Game of Thrones, and they don’t have to pay anyone. So it’s kind of a blessing in disguise. I just moved away, and being on it at all sticks, and everyone goes, “Oh, the guy from Game of Thrones!” It doesn’t really matter that you weren’t on it very long.”

[From StarTrek]

See, I don’t think he was really slamming HBO or Game of Thrones… for the most part. The shadiest thing is when he says the thing about how they changed the Dorne stories from the books, which is more a statement of fact than an insult. Everything else he says is true too – with these kinds of huge phenomenon shows, it’s easier and more fun to just do it for a season or two. You get all of the hype but you don’t have to rearrange your life for years at a time. That being said, I do hope that they eventually bring back f—king Gendry.

Photos courtesy of WENN, HBO/GOT.