You’ll not be getting much from Gwendoline about Commander Lyme in ‘The Hunger Games’ or her mysterious helmeted character in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘, but she loves to talk about her character on Brienne of Tarth on ‘Game of Thrones.’

Christie began her panel at Denver Comic Con by explaining her journey to becoming Brienne of Tarth, which all started with googling herself. A friend had told her that she was up for an HBO show, or rather, the internet said she was. From there, she found the fan forums, picked up the books and fell in love with a character that “explodes” all the feminine stereotypes.

To her, what is brilliant about the character is that she uses her “own strength, and her own power” to abide by a moral code that does not align to a particular house.

At first, Christie was embarrassed about how she looked when she first saw herself with her hair short and without make up. “I look bad,” she lamented. However, she admitted as Brienne developed, she also developed and grew up. She quickly corrected her “I looked bad” comment by saying “[Brienne] doesn’t look bad. She looks different,” and then continued to praise Brienne’s representation of women, something she felt was long overdue. “That was the most attractive as I’ve ever been as a character,” she stated.

On how easily Brienne falls in love:

Christie goes in to depth about Brienne’s love for Renly, suggesting that it was beautiful because it was a love between two people who respected one another.

She also said that Brienne fell in love with Catelyn Stark because she had a woman’s strength as opposed to a soldier’s, and it taught Brienne that she didn’t have to be a man to be who she was.

On the Bear Fight:

Of all the scenes, the most important to do to Christie was fight a bear, but she feared it wouldn’t happen. When she asked, the producer would laugh. Much to her delight, the battle with the bear scene went forward, though she found out five days before that she would not be fighting it herself, much to her chagrin. Apparently, it’s not a good idea to put a season regular in danger like that.

This, of course, begs the question of who played Brienne in the scene where the bear nails her? The bear’s trainer! Apparently, he had been practicing for months wearing a dress and a wig to get the bear to do the scene just right. On the day of the shoot, the bear was particularly irritated, and really wholloped the trainer, and that was the scene they used for the show.

How much does she know about will happen next in ‘Game of Thrones’?

“Not a sausage,” laughs Christie. She said that many of the actors get together and talk about who is going to die, but never knowing who is going to be.

Christie’s panel was a delight, so for all of you ‘Game of Thrones’ fans, if you have a chance to catch one of her panels at another con, be sure to get in line early! It will be worth it!