The last time I found myself crouched in a darkened bathroom with a phone clutched to my ear was in high school, talking to a boy and hiding so that my mother and her supersonic hearing wouldn’t hear my giggles. A decade later, I was back in that darkened bathroom, with a phone clutched to my ear, talking to a boy. Except he was no ordinary boy, or even a boy, for that matter.

I was on the phone with a man from Dublin, whose alter ego’s sole purpose was to place the rightful king on the Iron Throne. It was only fitting that I, too, was seated on a porcelain throne, hiding from my “direpoodle” and his barking to chat with “Game of Thrones”’ Davos Seaworth, played by Liam Cunningham.

There are two things Super learned about Cunningham during our short conversation. One, he may probably be the most down-to-earth, humble actor on the planet (no small feat given the meaty roles he’s been given). Two, just like us, he’s a hardcore fan of “Game of Thrones.”

Check out what Liam had to say about suffering for his art (he has to spend hours pretending to be four fingers short, leaving his hand in terrible cramps after a scene), being mobbed by teenage boys, and how it feels to be a citizen of Westeros.

On challenges on the set:

I think the most challenging part is to make sure that I am up to the standard of the show because I’m a huge fan. I remember when I got the DVD I was gonna try and watch them over a week and I ended up watching them over a 24-hour period. I try to be honorable with the character of Davos. He’s an incredibly interesting character, so that’s what my primary challenge was—not to destroy the show!

On what makes Davos Seaworth tick:

Family is very very important to him.  He has a layer of honor, which I think is evident in his dealing with Stannis and how he assists Stannis in becoming the only person sitting on the Iron Throne. I think loyalty, honor, family and decency and respect are parts of him—he’s not ambitious for himself, he’s ambitious for the man he works for. He thinks Stannis is the rightful heir to the throne, especially after we find out what Joffrey has been doing, where he’s come from.

On Westeros and the real world:

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and I think that you can see from all the characters—Cersei, Tyrion, Theon Greyjoy, Robb Stark, all these guys are hungry for power and I think it’s the same in the real world—people become blind, they see what they think is right and they feel the means justify the ends. Sometimes they forget their principles, their morals and decency, and create havoc. That’s part of the drama of the show, I think, is that its job is to hold a mirror up to society. I think there’s a certain amount of reflection on society that people in powerful positions stop thinking about the people they’re supposed to protect, and they just think about the game—the game being politics, and on our show the game being the game of thrones.

On being faithful to Davos’s character:

The script is so beautifully written that what I had to do apart from reading it over and over is to be able to show the history of the relationship between Stannis and Davos—they’ve known each other for 17 years! Stannis has chopped half this man’s hand off, yet they have this loyalty and knowing of each other.   The challenge is always getting the relationships correct—the dealing with each other, the respect, the loyalty. The interesting thing is Davos works for Stannis but he also has to tell some very hard truths—he brings bad news to Stannis  and is unafraid of giving this news because of the respect Davos has for Stannis, which I think is reciprocated because Stannis very much listens to him.

On HBO’s role in television:

HBO is producing some of the best television being made at the moment—some of the best television that has ever been made, and I think an audience is incredibly, obviously hungry for quality shows that don’t look down on them, or patronize them. HBO is to be congratulated because they have filled a hole, not just with “Thrones,” but with various shows that they’ve done to stand up with the best that television has to offer.  I think that’s what’s important with the show, to keep on bringing that quality and raising the bar each season and that’s what they wanna do and it’s very satisfying when you’ve got a show with the quality of “Game of Thrones.” I’m a very happy man to be involved in it.

On acting through the pain:

I keep forgetting about it, because I keep getting caught in the moment and these long scenes, which is a joy for an actor to do.  One of the reasons my hand has hurt several times is because these scenes are long and intricate, full of intrigue and paranoia and jealousy, and when you’re playing them, I kind of forget about my hand and I do have to extend it regularly to stop it from cramping up, but I tend to forget, so you can find me around the back of the set in my dressing room occasionally trying to squeeze my fingers back open because you disappear into the world during a scene.

On Liam’s similarities to and differences from Davos:

I started acting very late, and as I like to say to people “I used to be a real person.” Because I started so late, I think I bring a certain amount of reality to the character.  As a human being I’m reasonably comfortable in my own skin—I don’t think I’m particularly arrogant, I frequently call myself an idiot for things that I’ve done and I don’t think I’m the oracle.  There may be certain parallels between Davos and myself—I suppose that’s for the audience to decide rather than me. It’d be slightly arrogant of me to associate myself with the decency of Davos, you’ll have to ask my friends and family for that, not me.

On drunk fans:

That’s kind of funny, last Friday night I was gonna meet a friend in Dublin for a drink, and he suggested a bar.  When I went into the bar, various people would come up, saying they like the show, they tap you on the shoulder. It’s very nice that the people are appreciating the quality of the show, but I walked into this bar and there was an “under 21” football team who was celebrating some win and it seemed like almost every one of them was a fan of the show, I got slightly mobbed by these 19-, 20-year-old guys who were, shall we say, “not sober.” I mean they were wonderful, they were very effusive, it was fun for a few minutes there, but I couldn’t even make it to the bar to get a drink so it was time to take myself out of there.  It’s one of those wonderful success stories and long may it continue.

On lovers turned enemies and hanging out with other castmates:

What’s strange about the show is that because of the ensemble nature of it, there’s a lot of people that you don’t get to see really often.  I bumped into Kit Harrington (who plays Jon Snow), in Los Angeles for some publicity stuff but generally speaking because he’s up the Wall, we don’t get to see each other that much. Carice (van Houten), who plays Melisandre, I made a movie with her two years ago in South Africa, where we were lovers and now we’re enemies, so that’s quite amusing, we’re sort of friends, and Stephen Dillane, we supper together and have drinks, down a pint or two. It’s a fantastic atmosphere on set, and the boys, David (Benioff) and Dan (Weiss), they’ve done a great job, they’ve provided us all with a wonderful platform to tell these magnificent stories. And obviously, not forgetting the wonderful Mr. George R.R. Martin for creating the world. It’s a joy to do, it’s one of the things I will be very, very happy to have in my resume for the rest of my life.

Catch the second season of “Game of Thrones” on HBO Asia every Saturday at 9 p.m.