How to play Iconic Characters with Ross Mullan - The White Walker from HBO's Game of Thrones

#gameofthrones #actingadvice #doctorwho 

Hi, I’m Jim Eaves and you are listening to the honest filmmaker podcast, career advice from people in the business.

Today I’m talking to Actor and performer Ross Mulan. Ross is an accomplished stage and screen actor. He’s toured with big theatre productions, he’s a voice over artist and has played iconic characters in television and film in Doctor Who, Antman and The Wasp Quantamania  and as the White Walker in HBO’s Game of Thrones.

I had a great chat with Ross about what it’s like to be an actor, in particular when acting with heavy prosthetics make up as fantasy characters. He gave me some great tips for actors and the make up sfx team that looks after them.

Enjoy!

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Transcript

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[Music] hi Jim here and you're listening to the honest filmmaker podcast career advice from people in the business this week I spoke to actor and performer Ross Mullen Ross is an accomplished stage and Screen Actor he's t with big theater Productions he's a voiceover artist and he's played iconic characters in television and film in Doctor Who Ant-Man and the WASP Quanto Mania and as the White Walker in HBO's Game of Thrones I had a great chat with Ross about what it's like to be an actor with Prosthetics playing fantasy characters he also gave me some great tips for actors in those roles and the makeup and sfx teams that look after them enjoy so I've looked look back through your IMD DB look through your resume you've got a pretty varied career you've done tons of stuff um and it looks like you started out in theater did you do any training for that or did you how did you start uh well how I started was um gosh uh I bothered my parents enough because there was no drama section that was worth pursuing in my school when I was a kid uh so uh see coming from Canada my father really wanted me to be a hockey player right for 10 years for the first 10 years of my life I was a hockey player for my father and then we got into a big argument and I said I want to be an actor and he said oh well how are you going to do that and I said I want to take acting classes I was only 12 uh so he sold all my hockey equipment and put me into acting classes in Montreal where I'm from yeah I went to the very first uh school for children in monreal called Children's Theater uh where William shner actually trained when he was a little boy oh no way that's like a long time ago it opened and the same ladies who trained him trained me when I was very small yeah uh so I was like 12 years old when I started my training uh and doing little plays and things for them and then uh I went into drama school when I was 16 uh I went to uh a college for drama and then I went on to University and studied drama as well in Toronto at Ryerson which is where Nia vardis studied uh my big th Greek Wedding she was a couple years ahead of me in school and Eric McCormick from willing Grace as well awesome and it was that training specifically theater or did it cover film as well um it was pretty much at that stage in the 80s you really only had theater training very little um very little training for actual film work I mean the only type of film film training you would get is more intimate style um you know like a closed box sort of smaller uh try to make things tinier because most universities and colleges didn't have the equipment to set up having said that we did have a couple of days where we would go into a film studio see how it operated and worked so I did have some some kind of idea around what the equipment was like to work with what if three what if three three camera setup was like for a TV show but very little very very little and for the first um gosh 15 17 years of my career I did mostly theater I did very very little film and television yeah and was that going straight into theater could you make a living out of that was it that and day jobs or you just made a steady living out of doing theater Productions yeah yeah pretty much I mean you know as an actor does you know an actor is uh a man of many hats and woman of many hats I you know I waited tables in between jobs but there wasn't a year that had passed and still to this day there has never been a year that's passed that I haven't had a professional gig um I you know I worked in a mask theater company for my first four years um and also doing other Little Theater J jobs in and around Canada and then I moved to the UK in 1991 with the intention of taking a year off and traveling around Europe I fell in love with London decided to stay and met up with a dancer who put me in a show got me an agent and then I started touring all around Europe the Middle East and Asia with musicals uh doing Musical shows yeah so what what for somebody who's thinking of purely starting off into theat what is touring life like um it's not for it's not not something if you're older I wouldn't say you want to start off in that direction when you're old uh it's a young man's game you know it's uh it's it's a hard SLO it can be a very hard SLO if you're not touring with one of the big big you know if you're not touring with angeloid Weber's companies or one of the big touring companies because you'll be doing your own setups and uh pack downs and get inss and get outs and you know doing all the setups and stuff um but it's amazing it's also awesome like I saw the whole world you know doing doing that I I toured literally all over Europe uh Japan Hong Kong Kuwait Taiwan um I was a kid you know I was in my 20s and I couldn't get enough of it you know traveling around with the seven other actors uh doing Productions in the evening and having the whole day to just kind of hang out and see these amazing cities and uh and then you know go out and party in the evening because I had the energy for it right um so it's it's a great way to see the world um you know a lot of people say oh you know when you're working abroad you don't really get to see the cities and that that can be very true when you're filming uh but when you're doing theater not really because you got all day to kind of hang out and go see the sites so it's um yeah it's it's it's kind of a tossup between the two you know it can be really great thing it can also be really exhausting I burned out after about six or seven years of touring by the end of the 90s I was exhausted and I just thought I can't do this anymore um you know I was coming home to London every six or seven months and London was really a new home for me already uh and I wasn't really setting up Roots here and I didn't really know you know I felt all discombobulated and I was heading into my 30s and I wanted to change so you know things had a natural progression into moving away from touring into looking at maybe doing more film and TV if I could get it you know and I couldn't immediately right away I changed my agent um you know started doing call center work uh box office work same old in between jobs you know where you meet other actors uh you pick up leads and ideas and you know I did some standup comedy I trained as a puppeteer as well with the Muppets um you know I've always been interested in adding a new string to my bow in my career always did singing lessons acting classes and then eventually uh I got cast in a miniseries and made a bit of money you know finally in my career and put it towards a home uh the one I'm sitting in right now and uh you know and then then I lost everything then I went bankrupt and then and then I got another job and that you know is uh that pulled me out of my debt um and that that was uh you know that changed the trajectory of my career uh so you got to I mean if you're interested in this career you really have to give up the notion of what your mom and dad may have thought security was like because my parents you know my mom was a nurse my dad worked in oil refineries what they wanted for me was a security and you know a sense of absoluteness about my career uh that would give me security and pension and all those things uh I don't I don't have that necessarily and not to say that you can't have that as an actor if you're smart with your money I'm not um you know there's a you got to fly by the seat of your pants to a certain degree in this career and you got to accept a certain amount of insecurity um I think and you got to be a bit of a gambler and uh want to do this you know I I remember la like Last Christmas I met this young girl she was about 16 or 17 at a Christmas party with her mom and dad you know and her mom and dad were both lawyers and they said to her you know give her some advice you know tell her tell her she needs something to fall back on well you know I said I'm really sorry but you know I can't say that to her because in my opinion if you really want to make it in this industry don't have something to fall back on that's because you'll fall back on it easily and if you're if you're if you know if you studied for four years to be a lawyer just so you could have that as your backup job you're not g to enjoy what it is to be a performer you know like you can't just drop your lawyer job or do it on the weekend you know it's uh that's what waitering is for that's what call center jobs are for those what the little jobs are for that help you connect with other people in the Performing industry also they make you want to go and do your job your main job right um it's a it's tough and it's tough to hear that sometimes um but you got to make it Fly also I'm older now so I don't know what young kids do I they probably do a lot of stuff online or uh I think they hand things out at stations and uh you know it's uh you got to kind of make it work right and there's a fun in that you know you you connect with other actors you get other leads you know you get kind of things like where are you going what are you doing you know meet people on cruise ships do cruise ship jobs all that stuff there's a ton of angles you can get in this industry and uh it's a lot of fun uh but it's not for everybody yeah I think having chatted to a lot of creatives recently it does feel like jumping in you've got to jump in you've got to go for it and commit and like you say I've done it done it myself where I've thought oh I'll do a I'll make another feature film and I'll I'll work I'll go to work I'll go in in the mornings and I'll film in the evenings you know I'll split and then you become a half a person because you're not dedicated to that you know that one thing um so yeah that's good advice um and that must have been an interesting conversation in front of the parents to say yeah don't get this lawyer job to two lawyers as well people who are in Industry um with the uh theater training how much did that prepare you for uh screen acting what have you what did you take from theater into sort of film and television um it's really tough to say what what kind of prepares you for what you're doing in the industry now uh I by the end of drama school I was just absolutely desperate to work um and then you really carve your teeth by working so you know some of the actors I've worked with in this industry have never trained and are equally as good and if not sometimes better uh some people who go into training are destroyed by it and by the end of the three years or four years of training they're nowhere near as talented as they were when they went in oh really yeah and I would say that for because I've I I teach sometimes uh I think sometimes drama school can really it's not for you and it's um it's a tricky dance uh I guess for the students and for the teachers to know whether that's for you or not and where to direct somebody if it is or it isn't because you don't want to be uh you know when I teach I always say especially if they're coming to the end of their three years because often when kids are coming to the end of their three or four years of drama school they're feeling somewhat disillusioned and frightened of going into the industry um they're overwhelmed uh or they feel extremely safe in the environment that they're in and they don't want to leave it you know but they have to because it's not a realistic environment we don't we don't live in that world anymore where you go into a theater company which holds you for 10 years like they 50 years ago um so you need to get out of the nest you must carve your teeth outside and the world outside of drama school is completely different um every director is different every production is different everybody has a different angle you must serve a piece that you're working on you must serve the director the producer and the production itself and the character you're playing and sometimes you have a lot of creative input in that and sometimes you have absolutely none and sometimes you get bossed around and sometimes people are like hey man what do you want to do sometimes it could be really groovy Loosey Goosey kind of like wow let's all get together and put our ideas together in a pot and sometimes it's like Chop Chop we have no time let's get on with it we got to shoot this let's go make a fast decision and go um I always tell my students don't forget what it was that got you in this school in the first place I hope you haven't left that at the door because although I think drama schools are very well-meaning I think sometimes what can be done is you come in with a talent because obviously they saw some talent in you to bring you in many may go okay well this is your talent you've got that I want to challenge you and make you more like this and try try to get you to do more of your comedy side or more of your drama side or more your classical training and try to make you a more uh octopus kind of actor you know you can do anything but some actors are just not that you know some actors will never be that some actors are really good at being on Coronation Street and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that some some actors are brilliant at horror movies some actors are fantastic at comedy and some people are Niche and some people are very good at moving between all of those um so you know sometimes by the end of a drama school you know you can feel like wow I'm really not good at this but that's not necessarily true because what brought you in there in the first place is a drive and a desire for talent and a belief in yourself to at least put yourself forward to train in this and there's a lot there's a lot that goes on that and I really truly believe that you know and I and I really say this from the bottom of my heart you know you cannot dispel what is a good or a bad actor in this industry you cannot decide that drama schools try to help they go oh that's good acting that's bad acting trust me man like some Bad actors do really really well in this industry for very good reasons and the one thing you have to really look at in yourself is why are they doing so well what is it that the audiences get from them and not look down on them for that neither the audience or them but say how do I fit into this industry and where is my place in this it's not my place to go that Pamela Anderson is like not a great actor but Judy Den is amazing I mean they're both really really successful and that is that some audiences love Judy Dench and some audiences love Pamela Anderson there is nothing wrong with that that's a that's a fair fair game and there is room in the industry for people who are extremely commercial actors and there is room for classical actors as well and I believe that a lot of classical actors would tell you the exact same thing you know and a lot of people can hold their chops in between both believe it or not I think um yeah I think the last like 15 20 years of the industry has really shown us a lot of who can really survive this especially with the Advent of reality TV and such you know a whole other branch of our careers opened up through social media Instagram putting ourselves forward on Twitter on all of these things that are kind of important platforms as well um you know these are all things that have to be considered when you go into this industry uh and it's important to not try and figure out who am I in this you know who am I would how would you suggest people do that is that gut or is that seeing how people react to you in those different types of acting well yeah I mean there's no other way than just getting in and doing it you know like first of all I think you know I always say to actors what do you want to do like what do you what what do you like what drove you in here you know be honest with yourself it's okay if you say like hey man I'm here because I used to watch Happy Days on TV when I was a kid and I was like I just want to do that yeah like I'm not here because of Shakespeare or check off I'm here because like you know I thought Madonna was cool and who's that girl you know it's like good then go back to that and figure like why is that good for me like how would I do my own or how do I what's my thing you know it's it's a question it's a it's a it's a uh I believe it's a very kind of psychological question in a way that an actor needs to ask himself especially when he's young and he's trying to make an identity for himself uh I think young actors who really succeed are the ones who I wouldn't say are naive but are open to the possibility of doing anything really and go I'll give it a go I'll give it a try um you know we often say like oh wow you know you know ignorance is bliss uh and look at that as a negative but you know I was pretty ignorant when I came into this industry I was a bit like I'll do anything like I was just like I just want to be in it I want to be I mean mostly I wanted to be on TV but that wasn't possible right away so yeah I'll do theater yeah I'll do I just want to be in front of people I want to act you know people were like I ended up doing mask theater for the first four years and that you know that brought me into being a very uh physical actor that I had no idea that I was a very physical actor when I was younger um I was good at sword fighting even though I didn't really like it I was like oh okay like I didn't realize I I'm six foot4 and I'm really lean I I look really good when I'm sword fighting on stage somebody told me that like great good I'll do that so I did a lot of sword fighting my first must be the Hoy surely is that the hockey training I guess so yeah I had a finesse about me I I don't know it's um I was a yes person you know and I'm definitely not saying get out there and do whatever anybody asks you to do that could be obviously put you in a dangerous situation but um being a Yes Man uh is a good thing you know being a yes person saying like yeah I'll do that first Port of Co like you know would are you know do you want a stilt walk yeah I'll give it a go I'll try like I need to train that's how I learned how a stilt walk people go do you know how to do stilts and I go no they go great are do you want to try I'm like sure you know same with my horseback riding that I learned on Game of Thrones I went to that audition and people were like you know they were just like can you ride a horse and I was like no I cannot and I'm 45 years old uh so you might want to look for your horseback rider and they were like well if we sent you out on lessons would you want to learn I'm like sure yeah yes I'm a yes person you know yeah um and they sent me out on horseback riding lessons uh you know be willing to try new things it was the same with puppeteering try it see if you like it see if that's your thing you know and slowly but surely your identity as a performer will come to the Forefront you know it'll come up for you you'll see where you belong you see ah I have a face that looks like the uncle in Aladdin so I end up playing abanza Jafar for five years six years of panto life that I did yeah you know um maybe I wanted to play Widow twanky but I didn't you know yeah but I'm happy playing Jafar or you know abanazar so so then that brings me on to so you seem like a nice guy you know quite calm casual chatty but then you end up playing all these horri not horrible scary characters where's that come from and why why do you think that is why have you ended up in those um it's interesting that um I'm writing about that at the moment oh are you yeah it's an interesting thing um well there's a lot to be said about the the character that is the evil one in the pieace the the uh you know the antagonist in the peace um it's a beautiful Sacred Space to be held actually it's a great honor because what you need to do in to two two things you need to recognize is is you know you have to have empathy for this character uh you have to be able to see that growing up is a gay man from a very young age and knowing that I really could identify with how I felt the world saw me and thought that maybe I was there was something wrong or bad with within me uh so I think from that angle I can empathize with the person and maybe why they are as angry or as monstrous as they have become what has led them to that but then also you have to understand how you serve the peace too that you have to understand that there's a protagonist in there the person who does understand or needs to conquer that or uh slay that dragon or get get rid of that and that you're part of that piece as well you're you're an element of that peace because the peace is an overall metaphor for life right and you're only part of that that metaphor and so is the protagonist so you're all part of that creation of that story um it's a great honor to play them um I'm tall I'm also bald you know there's things that may they make you know make it really easy for me to play the evil guy uh and that's cool and they're always a lot of fun to play uh you know it's a great honor to play anything at all to have any kind of casting Chuck your way understanding your the reasoning behind it and understanding how how you're going to do it is really important you know for me I think for any actor I suppose um the wise and hows of why I'm doing it or how I come around to be playing these I don't know you know I'm not 100 per sure but like I said I'm writing about it yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a lot toact there um and I guess would you say uh your agent and your head head shots and your show real have a part to play in you even getting through the door into the audition of those particular Parts yes yeah I would say so you know uh I try to put forward as much stuff I can on my show reels you know uh I haven't updated mine for ages uh update your show reels uh yeah I haven't updated mine for ages because I have a lot of stuff I'd love to put on there that's comedy uh because you know I worked in comedy for years uh and I've done some really good little bits and Bobs comedy-wise in film and t uh like short films and stuff recently and uh you know you always want to show different angles and stuff and I've just got cast recently playing a father uh and it's a comedy he's his daughter's been kidnapped uh on her honeymoon but it is a comedy yeah um and uh I'm glad that I've had the opportunity someone to see like that again you know like it's a great opportunity you know so yeah keeping I think yeah my agent sort of tries her best to to get me a job really and that's great and I'm game for any kind of job really so then with the parts so the Doctor Who stuff and Game of Thrones just just from a logistical side how are they describe to you when you go in for an audition is there a par because I heard the term skin performer before does that apply or is it like because I'm assuming the Doctor Who thing you're you're kind of fully in there aren't you in the character yeah how are they pitched to you when you when you're going for an audition they're more animatronic heads like they're kind of big Blobby things that are chucked on to you both of them have their extremely challenging they're both of them are extremely challenging one of them is like you sit in a chair for six hours and have makeup done and then you've got to film for 12 hours after a sixh hour chair and then you've got an hour and a half out of the chair you know getting all the makeup off four hours sleeping and then you're back in the chair again and then you know it goes like that so you have to be able to work like that for like at least a week maybe two weeks three weeks maybe four weeks who knows and not have a massive meltdown emotionally just tricky is really definitely tricky not everybody can do that because some people don't operate on well under very little sleep some some people don't operate well doing night shoots even when they're not in prosthetic so prosthetic work is challenging um then there's the motion capture stuff or the uh motion capture is challenging in its own right just simply because you're covered in balls and you're not on set really you're in a studio and it's all imagination and it's ex I find it exhausting um I find it repetitive I find it I find it really draining because you're just there's no set there's no costume there's no props it's like you know it's like being back in drama school um and then there's the animatronic head world of of Doctor Who and that kind of thing uh that I've experienced those there's very difficult to breathe inside of them they're very confining they're you know very claustrophobic if you're claustrophobic at all you got to be able to go to your sweet space in your head so there's a very you know there's a couple of places you got to be able to go to in your brain to be able to do all of this stuff and um you also have to you know really want to do it that is basically it like I really wanted to be in a movie so put me in a witches costume in Clash of the Titans it takes forever and I can't breathe in it and I'm dying of overheating I'm going to do it I'm going to do it because I'm going to be in a Warner Brothers movie that's that's what I want to do you know I don't want to work in an office in Canary Warf I don't want to do it yeah I just don't want to do that I want to do this you know and so it comes with its own challenges and and so think of think of an actor who's uh for doing prosthetic stuff for the first time what what are your tips for uh dealing with long makeup hours and long uh you know like you said long makeup hours performance long d-g little sleep what what your tips for sort of handling that so really reserve your energy do not do not think you've got to do anything until the cameras are up ready and they call Action because everything that you do in a Prosthetics or an an animatronic head or whatever you're burning your energy out and there's no point in doing any of that until the cameras are rolling so and it's difficult because as an actor you know you want to keep your energy ready and ready and ready but really you need to pace yourself that's one thing uh know your diet with your stomach your your toileting really understand your diet and your body don't overeat or eat things make you feel funny or weird eat for you what is makes you feel healthy and good what might be good for me not might not be good for you so stay hydrated uh listen to your team listen to the makeup artists the makeup artists are your team the of course the director of course the producer are extremely important in this but they will work alongside your makeup team your makeup team are your entourage on this they are they are your part of your creation so do not work against them in any way shape or form listen to them listen to them and trust them because if you can't see or breathe properly they are there to help you they are there to help you breathe help you see they will be your eyes they will be your ears if you cannot hear they will communicate for you to the director and the producer if you cannot do that they are there you must trust them especially if you feel like oh I'm panicking right now you must tell them like I'm feeling panicky right now or I gosh I feel a bit funny or I'm I'm feeling a little weird and dizzy right now share that with them they're they're equipped to understand that and deal with it they're not working at odds with you and they don't want to be mean or cruel to you they're there to support you and and when you work alongside them they're a gift they then you gossip with them and have fun with them and the day goes by like that yeah you're having Cups of Tea and you're giggling and you're talking about the Real Housewives and it's all okay you know it's not it's not going to be the big dark horrible experience that it can be because it can be very isolating and lonely and strange feeling on set um so reach out and say I don't feel well I need to sit down now is extremely important to say to the director or the first ad or your you know because the last thing people want is for you to be taken off by the medic that's it then it's like game over you know we got to really figure out what we're doing for the rest of the day because we want you well enough so if it means you're running out of water and you will be because more so than somebody else on set you're not you're not a superum you know you need to be you know even when you're when you're working like this all day you You' be surprised how much more water you need than you normally do because your body's in panic mode you've never been like this all day in your life you know covered your ears so your body is working like this you're sweating more you're scared your body will work on an fear even when you calm yourself down and go this is okay your body still has an inner fear that needs to be calmed so you can say it's it's okay Ross it's okay so you try to put it into perspective you know yeah uh yeah and so on the flip side of that say you're doing your you might be a student doing your graduation film or you might be making the first feature film and you've got an actor in who's got Prosthetics on them what would be your tips for the director producer on dealing with that person what can they do to help that to get the most out of that actor oh good question because I'm about to meet a director next week because I'm working on a short film it's his end of your project actually and there we go and there we go uh what is my suggestion my suggestion is to work with try and get on board a very very good experienced Prosthetics person at least if you don't know what you're doing at least get somebody a makeup artist who knows what they're doing so they can advise and help you so I think directors and producers alike and I think a good producer and a good director will do this listen to the people who have experience prior to you and go listen I defer to you but also be able to put forward what it is you need or you want from your project right so uh I need you to play an ant that is you know so you know I don't want to see your eyes I don't want to see your mouth I don't even want to see your nose then I can say to you well I need to be able to breathe so something has to be done within this suit and you know what you need to do is just be open to conversation and cooperation and I think what Young film directors struggle with and I work with them a lot at metfilm I do some classes there you know or step in as an actor there um I think what what a lot of directors experience even when they become very professional and very good directors is communication can be tricky which is understandable because a director sees things through the lens of the camera so they're looking at the lens of the camera and they're not paying attention to you over there but you know if you're young and you're coming into this industry it'll benefit you a little bit especially if you're working with prosthetics actors to really know where what your parameters are of what you can can get out of them and what you can't and so it's it's very important you know I learned this only by doing you know I had to be able to say to the first ad and the director I can only do two more takes and then I've got I've got a break I need to break so it can't be dictated or called All the Time by the director and the first a of course we understand we need to get through the shoot but sometimes my body is just like okay now I know I can't do much more than this so just understand that you're not working with a regular actor you're working with somebody who's physically Limited at the moment you know being debilitated uh by by their whole body being smothered by a substance of some sort so listening cooperating trying to uh figure out what the piece really needs and serve that um and you know like I asked the director that I'm working with on this piece that we're shooting next month you know I said I'd love to meet up with you and have a coffee just to talk through all of what we're going to be doing and I want to hear what your vision is what you would like from me um what is what how how do you see this you know I've read the piece how do you see it coming to life before us physically on set you know how is that going to be realistic what's going to be expected of me and then I can tell you how I best work you know I work really well I mean like a lot of people do the first half of the day 7 o'clock till 12 one o'clock is my

sweet spot after 1: 37:21

00 my body gets tired you know I'm also older 56 now I kind of

need a nap you know around 2: 37:27

00 if you really want the best of my ability at 3

or 4: 37:32

00 I need a good 20 25 minute nap then I'm great you know expressing that sort of thing hearing that sort of thing and working with that sort of thing can really help you really benefit a project yeah and I think from the other side of the camera I've probably been guilty of this in very early Productions is you you don't see the person you see the the the character and the prosthetic and you don't appreciate their discomfort so you sort of treat them a little bit like in some instance like we had a on one of the first films we had a killer guy in a killer clown outfit with all Prosthetics and stuff and and almost because they're not coming up to you and speaking to you and saying actually I'm really uncomfortable I really need a break you just are they're okay and you just carry on and you know what filming's like it's long days things take ages to set up so the real key is preparation and scheduling to make sure you're when they come out of that makeup you you use them they're not sat over there in discomfort for an hour before they get in front of the camera um well that's that's what I was saying about you know burning yourself out you know it's the same with the director you know don't burn out your actor if he's ready to go and he's in his Prosthetics you know and their you know time is ticking I me I think you know what what happened on Clash of the Titans was and we had to resolve this after day one one was the they were you know we were shooting in a in a Shale pit we were playing Three Blind witches and that and in that Shale pit there was fire pits that would blow right and there was actual fire it wasn't CGI it was actual fire and actual steam well you know they would have that fire and steam going and going and going before we even rolled the camera so you can imagine how hot that studio was it was you could cook a roast in there and then we're sat there and I'm 40 50 lounds of Prosthetics only able to breathe through my mouth within an hour I my heart is racing I can't see anything because I've got so much like I mean already I could barely see anything I've got so much sweat I I I'm drowning um and I'm scared basically I'm like basically afraid yeah uh and you can't see me you can't see me and it was really my makeup artist who said are you okay because it's really hot in here and I was like I don't know and she she just said to me it's your call but listen you you know don't don't get sick because that's that's you know the worst like that you get ill and I was like she's like do you need to get offset and I said yeah I do and she just you know little girl that she was at the time she's a big makeup artist now stood up and she just went stop stop everything stop stop I have to get him offset he's overheating it's like get him off get him out and I just never wanted that to occur again you know I didn't want that to occur then and nobody wants that to occur but if you can't see the person or think about the person or know what's going on in there you know after that I can tell you everything changed you know the executive producer stepped in Richard zanic and changed everything he was like this is not going to happen again he said you know you're going to be fine because he said to me when you speak that's me speaking whatever you need you tell them and that's I've told them that when you speak that's me speaking and I'm the executive producer here so you know thankfully for him I went back on that set and I could voice myself but people were immediately like are you okay do you need some water do you need some ice are you cool enough are you then I could work and the end result is is you know Clash of the Titans remake is not a classic but I take great pride in our scene I think we did an amazing job The Witches I think it's one of the best scenes in the movie I really do and I look at that today I watched it on the plane going over to Omaha a few months ago and I thought you know wow like I can't believe I actually did that because I nearly died on that I literally nearly died on that set yeah and uh I'll tell you the executive producer thought so too because at the premiere I said to him you know hey Mr zanic I'm Ross Mullen he said hey you played the witch in in my movie I nearly killed you but I didn't kill you you know and I was like yeah I know he was like ah forget about it you know without him uh I don't know if I'd be here really and and again you've highlighted some some great advice for people training in prosthetics is having the confidence to speak up on behalf of your performer yeah because again it can be a bit intimidating if you're an A set and you're starting out and you're in the prospects department but you're really responsible for that person for looking after them so you need to speak up if you yeah if they need your help um so so I've got to talk about your Game of Thrones character um did did you know because that's such a big scene such an epic moment did you know that was going to be that big and epic when you did it or you know what was your kind of going into it did you know it was going to be because it is it's it's one of the it's like some of your other ones it's become like a real iconic image were you aware of that when you were when you about to do it uh no not at all uh God not not in the least yeah uh because I just come back off of Clash of the Titans and as you understand that was my first Prosthetics job and I hated it so I never wanted to do another one again yeah and the makeup artist from that became the makeup artist on on uh Game of Thrones Connor O Sullivan was the original makeup artist for the white walk Walker that I I did in season two got in touch with my agent and said we'd like to have Ross in for this and my agent said hey like they want to have you back doing your M and I was like I don't want to do it like I was like I really really I don't want to do that she was like well it's a really it's like it's Game of Thrones and I was like I don't even know what that is I was like not even watching it or it's not on my wasn't on my radar um she was like yeah you need to ride a horse and I was like I don't ride a horse so there we go it's like not gonna happen she said well listen you know I've talked to them you know because we were going back and forth and she said Connor would really like you to just go down and chat with them and hear them out so I was like well okay so I went down to the audition literally uh and I said I'm here for king of thrones and they were like H it's Game of Thrones Nina Gold was like it's Game of Thrones and I was like oh it's a game I thought it was a TV show and she went no it's a it's a TV show it's called Game of Thrones based on a series of books and I went oh there's books I was like literally I have no idea it was so not on my radar at all uh and in the audition process uh was of course I'm a creative and I I I you know I'm fascinated still you know I went in there they showed me a beautiful Story Board of gorgeous images that were both drawn and photographs of indigenous tribal people from all over the world New Zealand South America North America all these wild ideas of this tribal Warrior this they describe this character that steals babies from the snow and like they don't know what they do with them and it was all kind of it was very similar to my audition for Clash of the Titans they didn't have they had like all descriptions and cool things that but they didn't have a script because the character didn't speak you know uh and they had like a big that a big inner tube of a uh wrapping paper you know those cardboard inner tubes and they're like that's your sword so like you know take that sword and you know we're going to just turn the camera on and maybe you can improvise and I think Connor knew that I would do this like because that's what I did for my Class of the Titans audition I just told them to turn on the camera and I'd improvise and so I improvised this little thing where like you know I was just like Warrior walking through the snow Barefoot and you know pointing then I see a baby in the snow and I point this cardboard in tube at it like it's knife and I'm gonna like kill it and then I pick it up and I was about to stab it and then I kissed it and everybody laughed and they were like okay that's funny but don't do that when we do the second time and then we had this discussion about horses could I ride was I afraid was I not would I be willing to um my father's from Northern Ireland so having an Irish passport as well helped me because they were filming up in Ireland um I've been on a farm a lot you know so they were I'm not afraid of horses in any way but I just didn't know how to ride so I was like game for riding you know game for doing it and you know they're convincing me and Connor kept saying to me it's not going to be Clash of the Titans you're gonna be able to see you're gonna be able to breathe through your nose you be able to breathe through your mouth and because you're riding a horse you're gonna the prosthetic is going to be a lot easier on you um I got it then I started watching Game of Thrones um I knew that I was going to be the season finale of season two like that was going to be you know you are the season finale of season two your reveal um I didn't realize how cool that was a spot until I watched the end of Game of Thrones and I was like oh wow this these guys created a really cool you know they kill off their main character in the end of season one I was like whoa what uh this is crazy this cannot be so I thought oh cool what they're going to have and also I realized there's nothing like my character on this show right so then I started talking to other people you know it was a bit Hush Hush but I started to tell personal friends like um in this show Game of Thrones based on books they were like oh my God you're GNA be like one of the others which is the White Walker you're going to be you're like wow that's Mega big it's gonna be huge uh so I had an incling that it was going to be big um what did I I wasn't really 100% sure of anything until it's out there you know uh I guess you know the penny really dropped when the first day of shooting Dave and Dan The Producers came to my trailer and said you know nobody knows what you look like except for us and the makeup team uh we're going to bring your horse over to the makeup trailer and then uh you can climb up on the horse and then we're going to ride you you know ride over to the studio because it was all shot the very first season was shot on a green screen at shepperton and uh they you know I rode my horse over to the studio and then they kicked the barn doors open and I just rode in on my horse and people were like ah you know grabbing their phones and then they were like no no no you can't take a photograph people were like oh my God this is like mindblowing it was like you know so uh then I was like oh this is going to be this is a big deal uh so yeah I mean I kind of had an inkling and then you know then it happens and then your Twitter feed blows up a bit yeah yeah yeah and what I've taken away from that is when my son grabs those uh wrapping paper tubes and starts playing with them I should let him play with them because clearly yeah that's that turns into to something when you were when you were a pro um so so the Doctor Who stuff um do you did three three roles on Doctor Who is that right yeah yeah so so was it a case of you did one and they invited you back or did were they three separate jobs well weirdly I've done four one of was not actually on Doctor Who it was in Doctor Who proms right my first job was the Doctor Who proms replacing Spencer Wilding playing the ice Warrior and the prom and but I was still working with the Doctor Who team and after that uh they invited me to replace one of the guys who was playing the silence because there's four people playing The Silence he dropped out and I could fit the bill because I'm the same height uh so I was filling in again and then my third job was we'd like to offer you your own character your own creature which was the teller and then my fourth one was coming back and you know filling in a gap playing a wrath in Jenna Coleman's last episode hell band so yeah it was and I think really largely by then I was getting a a name for myself for playing creatures I'd played a few uh not just uh the White Walker and uh the one in Clash of the Titans but I done a couple of commercials and stuff as well playing space aliens or Monsters um so Doctor Who was you know I was on their radar and um yeah they were you know waned me to come in and do a few monsters for them yeah yeah you just become you just become uh typ casted yeah and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that exactly what you want in this industry is some sort of type cast so that you can be cast yes some yes they don't know how to cast 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