Meet the newest badass beauties of ‘Game of Thrones’ 

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Meet the newest badass beauties of ‘Game of Thrones’

Westeros is about to get rocked by a brand-new bunch of butt-kicking women in a beautiful new land. Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO; Macall B. Polay/HBO

Daenerys Targaryen. Cersei Lannister. Brienne of Tarth.

Some of the strongest characters on “Game of Thrones” are its women. Fearless in battle, strategic in their revenge, they have learned how to survive — and prosper — in the male-centric world of Westeros.

Daddy snake: The Sand Snake sisters are avenging the death of their father, Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal, above). His nickname was the Red Viper, and he was killed by a giant hired by the Lannisters.Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO

In Season 5, they will be joined by three younger women who are just as mighty and eager to make their impact. They are the daughters of the late Prince Oberyn Martell, and they live in a land we’ve yet to see on the show: Dorne, home to the Martells and the warmest and least-populated part of Westeros.

Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal) played a pivotal role in the series last season. He traveled to King’s Landing ostensibly to attend the wedding of King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) to Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) but really to get revenge against the Lannisters for the rape and murder of his sister, Elia. But things did not go well for him there.

In an attempt to clear the name of Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) — the one family member he liked — in Joffrey’s murder trial, Oberyn engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a giant and was pulverized. Now his daughters, Obara, Nymeria and Tyene — nicknamed the Sand Snakes after Oberyn’s nickname, the Red Viper — want to avenge their father’s gruesome death.

They make their first appearance in this season’s fourth episode, gathered on the beach at Dorne under the watchful eye of Oberyn’s former lover, Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma).

What does Dorne look like? Cast and crew traveled to Seville, Spain, to film all those scenes. “It looks like Spain in the summertime. Bright and sunny. Lavish and beautiful,” says Keisha Castle-Hughes, who joins the series as Obara Sand. “The color palette is orange, blue and red. And there are lots of Arabic and Middle Eastern touches.”

Our first glimpse of Dorne is along its wild sand dunes, but the production also ventured inland. One distinctive location the show used was the Alcázar palace, so treasured for its Moorish architecture that it became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

In the George R.R. Martin books the series is based on, there are eight Sand Snakes, but the show cuts it down to three.

In the fourth Martin novel, “A Feast for Crows,” Obara, Nymeria and Tyene pressure their uncle Doran (played in the series by Alexander Siddig) to declare war with the Lannisters, but devotees of the novels should know the TV series is drawing from both “A Feast for Crows” and the fifth book in the series, “A Dance With Dragons,” for the scripts.

We spoke to the Sand Snakes about their anticipated new roles.

“This stuff doesn’t happen to people where I’m from,” New Zealand native Keisha Castle-Hughes says of her career rise.Photo: C Flanigan/Getty Images;Helen Sloan/HBO

Obara is the most aggressive of the Sand sisters and the most like her father, Prince Oberyn Martell, who taught her how to fight.

“When Oberyn asked Obara to choose between her mother’s tears and her father’s spears, she’s the person who made a very strong choice to go in the way of war,” says actress Keisha Castle-Hughes. “She doesn’t display much emotion besides anger. She’s been taught to kill. If anything happens to [her] family, [she waits] for the right moment to get revenge.”

New Zealand native Castle-Hughes comes to “Thrones” with an illustrious background. She was only 13 years old when she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in 2003’s “Whale Rider,” the youngest actress to ever have been honored in that category at the time.

“The tide really turned for me in terms of opportunities,” says Castle-Hughes, 25, who went on to a role in her first Hollywood movie as Queen Apailana in “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” (2005). “This stuff doesn’t happen to people where I’m from.”

Keisha Castle-Hughes was the youngest-ever Best Actress nominee for her 2003 role in “Whale Rider.”Photo: AP Photo/Newmarket Films

The “Game of Thrones” role is her biggest in the last decade and, having read all the “Thrones” novels, Castle-Hughes was prepared to play Obara.

“I read them well before the show was a thing,” says Castle-Hughes, who has watched the show devotedly since its debut in 2011.

But when actor Pedro Pascal made his Season 4 debut as Oberyn, devotion gave way to ambition.

“When Pedro showed up, I said, ‘Who is this person?’ He was sexy and powerful and devilish,” Castle-Hughes says. “I went back to the books. I remembered the Sand Snakes. I felt I could pass as Pedro’s daughter. And then I campaigned with the series’ London casting directors. I was definitely persistent.”

It paid off. Castle-Hughes, who lives in New Zealand with husband of two years Jonathan Morrison and daughter Felicity-Amore, 7, began training in the Chinese martial art wushu.

Then she set off for Seville, where she hit it off with the other two Sand Snakes right away.

“We were there in the summer. The three of us, having never met before, fell into sisterly roles,” Castle-Hughes says. “We were very comfortably fighting with each other, like, ‘Why did you take the toast off my plate at breakfast?’”

Actress Jessica Henwick accidentally struck co-star Rosabell Laurenti Sellers when rehearsing with her 8-foot-long bullwhip.Photo: Mike Marsland/WireImage; Helen Sloan/HBO

Nymeria is the second-oldest Sand Snake and the most elegant of the trio, with long, flowing hair and feminine attire.

“She’s the most observant and calculating of the sisters,” says Henwick, who read the first two installments of Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels. “Tyene’s about trying to prove herself. Obara charges in. Nymeria’s aware of the big picture.”

The sisters are all, however, out for vengeance. “We’ve grown up with [our father] Oberyn saying, ‘We will kill the Lannisters.’ They took away our father. How are we going to make them feel the same way?”

The role of Nymeria Sand is London-based Henwick’s first major US role. After getting word that she landed the gig last fall, the 22-year-old hopped on a plane to production headquarters in Belfast the next morning to begin training with an 8-foot bullwhip, her character’s weapon of choice.

— Local Area Network (@alan_ariff) February 26, 2015

“There’s nowhere in London where you can use a whip without getting too much attention,” says 5-foot-7 Henwick. “I had to go to my parents’ house in the countryside. When you use the whip, it makes the loudest crack. It’s a very, very difficult weapon to use.”

In fact, during rehearsals in Spain, Henwick accidentally cut her Sand Snake sister, actress Rosabell Laurenti Sellers, with the whip.

“We were rehearsing, giving it 100 percent, and the sun was shining very bright,” Henwick says. “We were shot quite close together. It just came down to a spacing issue. She got a cut on her shoulder. The whip can take your eye out if you’re not careful.”

“Thrones” is the first major role for novice actress Rosabell Laurenti Sellers.Photo: James Warren/Photobeat Images/startraksphoto; Macall B. Polay/HBO

Tyene is the youngest of Oberyn’s three daughters whom we meet in Season 5 of “Game of Thrones.” Although she appears soft-spoken and childlike, she takes after her older sisters: She is dangerous.

Unlike Henwick and Castle-Hughes, 19-year-old Sellers hadn’t read any of the George R.R. Martin novels or seen any episodes of the series. She was living in Rome when she auditioned on tape for the role of Tyene.

“A few weeks later, I was in London for drama school auditions, and it happened to be when [executive producers] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] were there, so [casting director] Nina Gold organized a second audition with them, and it went well,” says the acting novice, who is now attending the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.

Almost back with my #GameOfThrones Señoritas! @kecahumo #RosabellLaurentiSellers pic.twitter.com/jxAd075uum

— Jessica Henwick (@JHenwick) November 16, 2014

Sellers — who was born in New York but grew up in Rome — was thrilled to set off for sunny Seville last October for filming.

“We got to shoot in some amazing locations,” she says. “In Spain, we were working in the Alcázar palace, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen in my life, with intricate and incredible Arabic architecture.”

She underwent the same rigorous training program as Castle-Hughes and Henwick.

“I didn’t have to learn about poison, but I did have to learn how to use the daggers,” says Sellers. “It was tiring and, yes, we did get hurt occasionally, but altogether it was really fun.”

Nell Tiger Free (left) as Myrcella Baratheon, daughter of Cersei Lannister. Right: Aimee Richardson, who originally had the role.Photo: HBO

The protracted battle between the Martell and Lannister families hinges on one single character: Myrcella Baratheon, the daughter of Cersei Lannister.

Cersei (Lena Headey) was married to King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) in the first season of “Game of Thrones,” but was sleeping with her brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in secret. So while Myrcella may, in fact, be a Lannister, she bears the Baratheon name.

Fair, young Myrcella was last seen in Season 2 when she was sent away from King’s Landing to Dorne for a marriage pact with the Martells (the family of Oberyn, the father of the Sand Snakes).

Cersei showed a rare soft spot when speaking about her only daughter last season. She told Oberyn to pass along the message that “her mother misses her.”

In Season 5, we’ll see Jaime travel to Dorne to bring Myrcella home to her mother. Some of the Dorne natives are determined to prevent that from happening.

Originally played by Aimee Richardson, who barely had any lines, the role has been widened in scope and recast with 15-year-old British actress Nell Tiger Free.

This will be the teen’s first US role. Her previous credits include the British series “Endeavour” and TV movie “Mr. Stink.”

Filed under Game of Thrones ,  George R. R. Martin ,  HBO ,  jack gleeson ,  Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ,  Oscars ,  Pedro Pascal ,  Peter Dinklage ,  Stunts ,  Weapons

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