It can be sometimes difficult to separate reality from fantasy when things are going just as sour in both.
Well, to be fair, there are no White Walkers crawling around on Greece’s border, but things have not been going well for the former ancient-empire for some time. After their economy collapsed, requiring the government to ask for not one but two bailouts from the EU, things have been a little tough for the nation of olives and old democracy. Maybe what they needed was a little pick me-up from some people who have had it worse.
Lena Headey, Liam Cunningham, and Maisie Williams–who all play Cersei Lannister, Davos Seaworth, and Arya Stark respectively on Game of Thrones–traveled around Greece today with a singular motive in mind. The trio of actors visited a Syrian refugee camp filled with Syrian refugees, Variety reports.
Headey, Cunningham, and Williams all joined up with an international Rescue Committee, according to a report by both the committee’s spokesperson and a spokesperson from HBO, in an effort to draw attention back on the tens of thousands of starving and scared people fleeing war and turmoil in the Middle East.
While it might seem unusual for three people who so passionately hate one another on television (though, do Davos and Arya even know one another exists?) to be seen so effectively teaming up, the three made it clear that this trip was more than about Game of Thrones, though the show has wanted to film in Greece in the past (except the government said “no”).
“These smart, hardworking people want to go home,” Headey said in a statement released by HBO. “They want to return to their communities and to their neighborhoods. They want their children to continue their education. They want to continue their university and they are stuck. They’re stuck. And they’re unbelievably sad. Understandably. We can do better for them. We must do better for them.”
Though Europe is brimming with millions of displaced Syrians, Greece itself is becoming home to 57,000 refugees and rising. Though its geographical position is likely part of the reason for it having one of the higher counts of incoming Syrians, that made it the perfect platform for three actors from a world-renowned TV show to make a watched statement.
Cunningham made a documentary video during their trip, saying at one point in the recording, “We’ve met extraordinarily beautiful people.”
“For me it is about the children,” said Williams as well, “Children with so much potential, so many hopes and dreams. Where is the humanity that makes it acceptable for them to languish in refugee camps – in Europe?”
The Game of Thrones actors also appealed to Greek leaders to cut down the EU-Turkey deal that would allow Greece to banish its refugees to Turkey at will, which right now–and for some time–is a nation mired directly in the fight against ISIS.
The three actors did what many before them have done; taken their worldwide fame, which of course springs from the most-watched TV show on the planet, to raise social awareness and inspire change. Unfortunately, the Syrian refugee crisis may be too much even for the Mad Queen, the Onion Knight, and the girl who can change faces and kill evil old men to handle.