A SONG of FIRE BURNS and ICE WIZARDS

MAKE-UP FX MASTER BARRIE GOWER LOOKS BACK ON GAME of THRONES

- JOE NAZZARO

AMAZINGLY, IT’S BEEN MORE than half a decade since Barrie Gower took over the prosthetics/make-up FX on Game Of Thrones, along with his wife Sarah and their fledgling company BGFX. Five seasons (and three Emmy Awards) later, the series ended a successful run as one of the most ambitious genre television series of all time, but Gower admits he’s still somewhat bemused by the whole experience.

“During that first year, we didn’t have a workshop, crew, benches or chairs,” he remembers. “Mark Coulier was hiring for Dracula Untold at the time, while Dave White was crewing up for Guardians Of The Galaxy, so we had to scramble in the beginning to build things up. That first year was a struggle, because we had never done anything of that size before, so it was great to survive it and think, ‘Wow, we made some cool stuff!’

“We were very proud of that first season, and the Emmy nomination really made it all worthwhile. We were getting a free trip to LA for the awards, so it was just going to be a great time, so when we won, it was like, ‘Have they got us confused with somebody else? Are you sure it doesn’t say ‘Greg Nicotero?’ But that was the point when we realised it was a very good thing to have done Game Of Thrones. And every year that we got another Emmy nomination, we felt blessed to be in the same category as these other teams and shows we were big fans of, such as Greg [The Walking Dead], Christien Tinsley [Westworld] or Eryn and Mike Mekash [American Horror Story].

“I never would have dreamt years ago that there was the remotest chance that Sarah and I would have been nominated in a category with those peers, and even less that we would win. It opened a lot of doors for us, and we’re overwhelmingly grateful.”