I don't think there's a question in anyone's mind about whether or not Scott Ian is a badass. As a founding member of the band Anthrax, he's been playing on large stages for years and years, but he's never been involved with a production as large as Game of Thrones. At least, until recently, when GOT costume designer Brian Gower walked the Anthrax guitarist through the process of becoming a white walker. Check it out, below, but please note there is a curse word or two in the video if you are at work!
Like many of us, Scott Ian is clearly a huge fan of Game of Thrones. Before dressing him as a white walker, Brian Gower shows Ian some of the prosthetics used to create some of the more popular white walker looks, including the prosthetics for the Night's King. He eventually sits down for an extensive makeup application in the video for Scott Ian's Bloodworks, and asks if he is the first American white walker. As it turns out, he is.
Here's a glimpse at the before and after of the makeup process for Game of Thrones. Honestly, I'm most impressed that the makeup team is able to incorporate his really long beard into the finished product. It's a good thing that a lot of men in Westeros sport hefty facial hair.
Ian gets the makeup makeover, but Brian Gower also schools him on the depth and scope of his and his team's work. At one point, he even explains that so far the major battle scene in "Hardhome" has been the toughest for the team in terms of outfitting white walkers with makeup and getting them ready for close-ups and more. Here's what he had to say about that wild day of shooting during Season 5:
It was nuts. There were hundreds and hundreds of extras on set. I mean it was a huge, great big set that the built in Belfast... it was an unprecedented amount of stuntmen all over the shot. Being there, just standing on the sidelines, just watching, you're just thinking 'this is absolutely nuts.' It looked so chaotic. It was like how the hell could they be getting something from this? And you sort of stepped to one side and looked at what was going on on the monitor and it was just beautiful. That was our biggest undertaking in the company.
For more white walker magic, you can catch new episodes of Game of Thrones on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET. In addition, check out what we know about the last few episodes in Season 6.
