Rory McCann became The Hound the minute he sat down for his "Game of Thrones" audition. In a video uploaded to YouTube in 2012 -- one which appears to be a hidden dragon egg from the Season 1 Blu Ray release -- the actor captures his character's harsh but delicate nature right from the get-go with a speech about the origins of his famous scar. The Hound may lack armor in the audition clip, but he comes across as powerful as in any polished episode (especially in one particularly arresting moment around the one-minute mark).
McCann spoke to Rolling Stone in April about his experience auditioning for Sandor "The Hound" Clegane:
McCann spoke to Rolling Stone in April about his experience auditioning for Sandor "The Hound" Clegane:
I think I really only got the part because my sister fucked up. She was supposed to print out what I was meant to learn for the audition speech, but she sent me the wrong one -- only two or three lines, that was it. I was waiting in this heat wave in London at the casting director's place, and I see everyone reading this big speech for the Hound about how he got his face burned. I had to delay my meeting for four hours so I could learn it. By that time, I was fucking raging. When I walked into the room, I knew I had to go crazy, so I unleashed all this. It was just a fluke that day -- I was just especially angry. [Laughs] Something worked.