George R.R. Martin, author of the Song of Ice and Fire book series, was the guest of honor at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark’s Game of Thrones–themed baseball game.
Before the first pitch went out at the game, at which the two teams were rebranded as the Starks vs. the Lannisters, he talked to BuzzFeed about Game of Thrones, fan theories, and his toy knight collection. Here’s what he had to say:
On scenes from the books he wished had made it to the show, he discussed a deep cut from Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner’s auditions.
“In the very first season — there’s a scene where Arya and Sansa, the two girls, are debating whether to go riding with Joffrey and look for Rhaegar’s rubies. That was actually the audition scene that they used for both of those girls, and you can see Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner doing it because those are up on YouTube. You see them just in street clothes in a room reading those lines, and it really works well and it establishes who these two girls are and their differences and the relationship between them.
“Sadly, they never filmed that scene. They never put them in costume and filmed it. That was one that really threw me because I’d seen it in the audition tapes and I went ‘Oh, OK, now we’re getting up to that scene. But wait — they just — they left it out!’ They left it out entirely, but you know they always have to do that.”