Game Of Thrones’ Gemma Whelan: I had to 'pleasure a man' for audition

Given the sexual content of HBO’s epic drama ‘Game Of Thrones’, it’s not surprising actress Gemma Whelan’s audition for the series wasn’t exactly family friendly.

Quizzed on the issue of her “odd” casting call, Gemma - who plays warrior princess Yara Greyjoy - opened up about the experience that reportedly involved pretending to masturbate a man.

“It was weird, but the casting director makes you feel... so comfortable,” admitted the 33-year-old. “I just had to pretend I was on a horse and I was ‘seeing to’ somebody behind me as I rode my horse and [the casting director] said 'Look straight down the barrel of the camera and just go for it'. So there I was.”

Speaking on Yahoo!’s daily ‘Fringe In Five’ round-up from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Leeds-born actress also revealed how it was complete luck she auditioned for ‘Game Of Thrones’ in the first place.

“I didn't know how big it was,” she admitted to hosts Russell Kane and Emily Dean. “It was serendipitous how it happened. I did an audition for a completely different thing - a comedy called ‘Threesome’ - and the same casting director was on that as ‘Game Of Thrones’ that was casting the following week and I think he thought I might be appropriate [for that].”

“I went home and watched series one back to back and thought 'This could be really fun. I'm never going to get this. Oh well, I'll just prepare really well'.”

Gemma is currently appearing in Edinburgh as stand-up character ‘Chastity Buttersworth’ (described as a potty-mouth Mary Poppins), and also in hard-hitting one woman drama ‘Dark Vanilla Jungle’.

Watch 'Fringe In Five' daily on Yahoo!, here.