Spoilers follow for the Game Of Thrones Season 6 premiere.
Watch the big reveal at the end of tonight’s Game Of Thrones episode featuring Melisandre, aka the Red Woman, where we see she is actually an ancient and old woman.
In case you are wondering, that is the actual actress, Carice van Houten, playing the old woman using make-up and prosthetics. Update: Carice van Houten wore prosthetic makeup for her face and hair, while her body was performed by an older woman.
Apparently, Melisandre’s magic necklace is responsible for her youthful disguise as she takes it off for the first time and then turns into her older self.
“I was really happy when I read that we were going to reveal that this year,” Houten told EW. “I don’t think a lot of people will see that coming. It makes her immediately more vulnerable, but also more wise and even more mysterious. There’s also a vulnerability in her age.”
“That’s why she was able to say, ‘This is just a small war, it’s all relative compared to the big war were going to face,’” van Houten says. “[Her age] makes everything even more meta. Definitely, that’s where all that stuff comes from.”
Watch the preview for the next episode here.
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9pm ET on HBO.
Updated: with image:
Warning: NSFW/mature content:
