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" At the end of the most recent episode, Michiel Huisman, the man who took over playing Daario Naharis on Game of Thrones from the Fabio-like Ed Skrein, got his first big scene. If you&amp;#039;re reading this, you&amp;#039;ve seen it. After we talked with Huisman about taking over the role (which you can read here), we asked him about that horse, that throw, that wink \u2014 really just how much of a dream it was to shoot something like that. Here&amp;#039;s what he had to say, with absolute glee and wonder: ESQ: So tell me the story of that scene. MH: We were in an abandoned quarry outside of Split in Croatia. So in some of the shots, you&amp;#039;ll see this gigantic stone wall, and it&amp;#039;s a real quarry. But what I remember most about shooting it was how I was standing there, and everybody was behind me, and the army of Unsullied was standing behind me, and this champion was charging towards me, and I&amp;#039;m just super cool, and I don&amp;#039;t really have a plan so I&amp;#039;m like, Why don&amp;#039;t I grab my knife? \u2014 and all the times in between takes I was thinking, Really guys? Am I really allowed to be this cool today? It&amp;#039;s ridiculous. [Laughs] I couldn&amp;#039;t stop smiling. I mean, talking about a boy&amp;#039;s dream. This is way beyond just carrying a badass sword. I mean, I mean this is like taking out this big ballsy champion and winking to Khaleesi as well like like, Anything else? [Laughs] Like, Seriously? I loved it. ESQ: How many times did you shoot that wink? Are you an accomplished winker? MH: [Laughs] I&amp;#039;d say two, three times. But the whole scene took about a week. [Laughs] ESQ: A week? MH: I think so yeah, at least. One of things that comes to mind now that I think about it was, the horse that goes down was\u2014I had never seen that before. That was a trained horse that would go down on command. It&amp;#039;s rider would do something, and the horse would flip around and throw itself on its back like it was just getting hit by my knife\u2014of course it never got hit by the knife\u2014and then it would just get up! And the only thing the horse would do is [sputters]. I was stunned. I was blown away. A horse runs up to me, throws itself on its back and throws off its rider, and gets up like it&amp;#039;s business as usual. It was amazing. ESQ: When you threw the knife in real life, what happened, did it just go off into the distance and someone would fetch it? MH: Well either it&amp;#039;d be that, or, when the camera is in front, I would throw it in a big net above the camera and I would try to really not hit the camera [Laughs], which I think I succeeded. But also, and I&amp;#039;m now giving you the insides of these things, when I was throwing the knife, we try to not really throw a real knife. We have an exact replica of a knife in some sort of rubber. I mean it would still hurt if it hit you in the head, but it&amp;#039;s not going to cut right through you. ESQ: Any close calls? MH: No. No. ESQ: So you&amp;#039;re a pretty good knife-thrower? MH: Yes. Yes. Thank God. [Laughs] ESQ: Did you try to keep the knife after the shoot? MH: No. No, no. Luckily for me, I was happy to leave the knife behind and come back for more knife work. To read what Huisman thinks about how big Daario&amp;#039;s genitalia is, head here. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/interviews/a30966/daario-naharis-michiel-huisman-interview-champion/>