You might not yet know the name Ellie Kendrick, but you will almost certainly know her most famous line: “Hold the door!” Since that particular episode of Game of Thrones aired last year, the cry has become its own meme. You can even buy themed doorstopscelebrating – or, rather, commemorating – the moment when Kendrick’s character Meera shouted to gentle giant Hodor and left him echoing her words.
Yet, surprisingly, it’s not something that people often quote to Kendrick herself, largely because her close friends and family don’t watch Game of Thrones.
“It's such a commitment though, right?” she points out. “If you were to get involved now that's 60 hours of your life.”
Fortunately, they’re always there to support her in person when needed. “They always come to my plays. I've got a very loyal and lovely group of friends who, if I sound the siren, they will come in.”
Kendrick is also not on social media – a deliberate choice on her part – so she misses the extensive online chatter and fan attention that the fantasy series conjures.
“I had Instagram and Facebook a few years ago and initially it was just because I got really distracted and was like, what am I doing with my life?” she explains. “I suppose it became a slightly broader question about how I want to spend my time, how I want to have my conversations and conduct myself in the world, in terms of how I connect to people. I realised that technology was short circuiting that for me. I didn't want to have the sense that I was in a strange capsule that social media creates.”
