‘Game of Thrones’ Star Carice Van Houten Talks Her ‘Simpsons’ Guest Stint

Last Sunday, Game of Thrones‘ Carice van Houten appeared in the Simpsons episode “Let’s Go Fly a Coot.” And although the episode tanked, the actress had a lot to say about her first major voice role.

Playing Milhouse’s e-cig-smoking Dutch cousin Annika, van Houten told The Hollywood Reporter about the experience as Bart’s latest love interest, which apparently began as a simple name joke among the GoT-watching Simpsons writers that eventually led to a table read sit-in.

“I came in very shy, and very humble. I’ve been a fan for twenty years,” van Houten revealed. “They started introducing the cast to the small audience, and then all of a sudden this guy says, ‘And we have a very special guest today. It’s Melisandre [Carice’s Thrones character] and she’s sitting in the corner there!’ I thought, ‘This is so strange! It’s the other way around. I’m supposed to be the fan here.’ Afterwards they took me to the writers room and wanted to take pictures with me. I had to put an autograph on a Westeros map.”

But Carice’s Simpsons experience didn’t end there, she explained: “I went back to Amsterdam and I didn’t hear anything. It was quiet for awhile. All of a sudden, I got an email that said, ‘It is happening.’ My voice was so high-pitched when I heard. I was jumping up and down like a little girl. I’ve never been as enthusiastic about any job.”

As for the job itself, the time commitment wasn’t especially demanding. “Maybe an hour,” she said. “It’s a guest role. It’s not a huge thing and they are very proficient. I would have loved to have been in that studio forever, but it’s also a job.”

But for a change, the job wasn’t a live-action show. “When I was first doing the first few sentences, they said, ‘You can make it even bigger! This is a cartoon. You can make it as big as you want.'” she said. “It’s so great. If you do a lot of movies and TV, you always try to be subtle and you try to do your eyebrow acting. Then all of a sudden you have this job where you can exaggerate like crazy.”

“In my own country, I’ve done a lot of romantic comedies,” she continued. “I came from a school where a lot of comedians come from and for some reason I always get cast for serious, strong, fierce women. Which I love, but I’d love to do things that are slightly nerdy or weird or crazy. You get type cast quite easily. I would love to play a nerd. I feel like a nerd. I don’t feel like a very strong woman like Melisandre. Melisandre is probably the person that is furthest away from any character I’ve ever played. It’s fun, too.”

As for her future with The Simpsons, van Houten was unsure. “They didn’t promise anything. I definitely wasn’t shy. I told them I’d love to come back. I would do it if I had to pay for it. I thought it was a huge honor.”

[via The Hollywood Reporter]