‘Game of Thrones’ Star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Reveals Why Jaime Finally Left Cersei

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for the Season 7 finale of Game of Thrones!

Well, it finally happened. After seven seasons of murder, incest and deceit, Jaime Lannister has finally broken up with his twin sister Cersei. (Even after seven seasons it’s still a little weird to say.)

According to Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau — who has played Jaime since Season 1 — the moment was long overdue. During an interview with the Making of Game of Thrones blog, the actor revealed that Cersei’s new lie was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“That was it. That was the moment. She’s so cynical on a level that he doesn’t understand. You don’t give your word in front of the whole world and then just f**k ’em. That’s too far. The fact is, yes there’s always been a lot of deceit, but Jaime is actually pretty straightforward when it comes to ‘walking the walk’ and all that. He’s thinking, ‘You commit to something, and you’ve just seen this thing is real, what the hell…?’ She takes it to a place that he can’t follow her to,” he said.

When asked why Jaime finally chose to walk away, Coster-Waldau said that the love between the two just didn’t go both ways.

“She seems more or less willing to kill him, and he finally realizes that whatever he feels for her, it doesn’t go both ways. That whole thing of ‘We’re in this together,’ well, we’re not quite in this together — because you’re not. We’re not playing the same game,” Coster-Waldau said.

As an actor, Coster-Waldau revealed that he’d been waiting to do that scene for quite a long time.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time, I think that he’s seen her do crazy things before, but this is lying to everyone, and lying to him. You’ve got to go, ‘How much can this guy take before it becomes too much?’ It was a great scene to shoot,” Coster-Waldau said.

It will certainly be interesting to see what Jaime does without Cersei when Game of Thrones returns for its eighth and final season — whenever that is.