Game of Thrones season 4 finale: Gwendoline Christie left 'really badly beaten up' after Brienne and the Hound battle

Filming the scene was one of the hardest things the British actress has done

Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth (HBO)

Gwendoline Christie has described the Game of Thrones finale battle between her character Brienne of Tarth and the Hound as “one of the f**king hardest things I’ve ever done in my life”.

The British actress was left with “hands like swollen tramps feet” after shooting the “mammoth” scene, during which the warriors clash over Arya Stark and the Hound falls to his presumed death.

Game of Thrones season 4 finale review

“We were fighting up hills, down hills, rolling, fighting on rock face with a sheer down drop,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a f**king really intense challenge.”

Christie added that filming the showdown felt real because of the contact being made between her sword and Hound actor Rory McCann’s. It was shot over three days in Iceland after six weeks of hardcore training.

“Rory and I were quite serious about it,” she said. “We are two people that really go for it in that situation. That is one of the few times I’ve not had to do any acting.

“I was screaming ‘F**k you! Come on!’ Blood everywhere, going insane. It is f**king mental. I actually lost it at points and would just go in screaming.”

Despite efforts by the stunt team to protect the actors, Christie told The Daily Beast that she was left “really badly beaten up”. “There was something primal that was awakened in both of us,” she said.

Fans of George RR Martin’s original A Song of Ice and Fire book series, the basis for the show, would not remember the brutal battle as it was not in the novels.

But showrunner David Benioff chose to end season four with the scene because he wanted the characters’ quests to “collide”.

“If felt right to use, these two pairings: The Hound and Arya; Brienne and Pod,” he said. “Both are on quests. The Hound is trying to get Arya to the Eyrie; Brienne is trying to find the Stark girls.”

Arya and the Hound meet an unwelcome visitor (HBO)

Both Benioff and co-creator Dan Weiss now face the task of bettering closing episode “The Children”.

“We’re a little intimidated because now we have to get back to the business of season five and figure out a way to top it,” they said. “It’s the best finale we’ve ever done, bar none.”

Elsewhere, Christie has been cast in an as-yet-unknown role in JJ Abrams’ hotly-awaited Star Wars: Episode VII. She is also lined-up to appear in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 as Commander Lyme.