It's a long story, basically his fans convinced him to try out for Khal Drogo knowing he probably wouldn't get the part due to lack of acting experience, but the producers might remember him for the role of the Mountain. That happened, he got the part and used the notoriety that GOT brought him to get a role in the Hobbit. The filming schedule for the Hobbit interfered with GOT so the producers were forced to recast the role for season 2. HBO usually doesn't give actors a second chance if an actor puts them in that position.

If you rewatch the scene between Bronn and Tyrion, just listen carefully to what Bronn says...

My favorite part was when the Hound tells the would be killer, after Arya remembers him: "This day not turning out the way you planned. Is he on your little list?"
"No"
"What's you name?"

I thought the scenes with Tyrion and his would be champions were also great.

Threading [the] Needle

Conan actually wanted to come back for season 2 but HBO basically went "Fuck that. If he can't prioritize us, he's out!"

What's really amazing about the scene between Oberyn and Tyrion was, that was the first scene the actor playing Oberyn shot after he was cast. There was such amazing chemistry in that scene.

Big mistake.

...by HBO.

Pedro Pascal interview about being on Game of Thrones

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lvjR7IVIUig" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(not sure if this has been posted before given it's from April, so worth a watch if you haven't seen it)

What are the titles of the final 2 episodes? I know the upcoming one is The Mountain and The Viper.

I hadn't seen that before, so thanks for posting it. Pedro seems like a pretty cool guy.

Biggest surprise for me in seeing the clip was finding out that he doesn't have an accent.

And I think it's great that he was already a fan of the show before even considering auditioning for it.

Yeah, that's Conan's story, but extensive Hobbit reshoots meant he couldn't be available for the equally lengthy GoT production schedule.

spoilered just to be safe

Thanks, Brian. I'm wondering when certain events take place. It seems possible that some more very important scenes may be coming in the last episode. Possibly... In the past, they usually have the big season event occurring in the 9th episode, but this whole season has been a series of big events.!

Yeah.. I think this year they decided to mix up the formula and we got big events in many of the episodes already instead of having a munch of minor events with a big blow-out event (Blackwater, Red wedding) in episode 9.