--- title: Game of Thrones: Melisandre Behind-the-Scenes Photo description: See the photo Carice van Houten — who plays Melisandre — shared from the Game of Thrones set just six weeks after giving birth. canonical: https://time.com/4951637/game-of-thrones-melisandre-behind-the-scenes-photo/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-21T16:56:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:26.640Z og:title: Game of Thrones' Melisandre Shared an Epic On-Set Photo og:description: Carice van Houten returned to set just six weeks after giving birth og:url: https://time.com/4951637/game-of-thrones-melisandre-behind-the-scenes-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe50c891af125743/6988d6e286f68e1fc76e5af5/game-of-thrones-stormborn-melisandre.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: game-of-thrones-stormborn-melisandre og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game of Thrones' Melisandre Shared an Epic On-Set Photo twitter:description: Carice van Houten returned to set just six weeks after giving birth twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe50c891af125743/6988d6e286f68e1fc76e5af5/game-of-thrones-stormborn-melisandre.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Game of Thrones_' Melisandre Just Shared an Epic Behind-the-Scenes Photo > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 21, 2017 4:56 PM UTC  HBO  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 21, 2017 4:56 PM UTC The [_Game of Thrones_‘](http://time.com/game-of-thrones-2017/) scene in which [Melisandre](http://time.com/4931655/game-of-thrones-melisandre-volantis-fiery-hand/) gave birth to a [murderous shadow demon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZye5DQMXE) is one of the show’s most memorable moments. But for Carice van Houten — who plays the Red Priestess — it seems safe to assume that delivering her first real child was a more momentous occasion. The 41-year-old actor welcomed her son Monte with her husband, Guy Pearce, in August 2016 — just six weeks before she was due back to film the seventh season of _Thrones_. But as is evidenced by the behind-scenes photo she shared on Twitter Wednesday, van Houten tried to be a good sport about it. “_Game of Thrones_ 2016 (six weeks after giving birth) when Conleth Hill (Lord Varys) kept calling me ‘James Brown,'” she captioned the shot of herself bundled up in a blanket and earmuffs on set. > [](https://twitter.com/caricevhouten/status/910591836028366848) **MORE:** **To stay up to date on everything** **_Game of Thrones_** **, follow our all-encompassing** [**Facebook**](https://www.facebook.com/WiCnet/?utm%5Fsource=time&utm%5Fmedium=article&utm%5Fcampaign=wicfacebook)[ **page**](https://www.facebook.com/WiCnet/?utm%5Fsource=time&utm%5Fmedium=article&utm%5Fcampaign=wicfacebook) **and sign up for our** [**exclusive** ](https://pages.email.ew.com/game-of-thrones?utm%5Fsource=time.com&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=gameofthronesnewsletter)[**newsletter**](https://pages.email.ew.com/game-of-thrones?utm%5Fsource=time.com&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=gameofthronesnewsletter)**.** However, van Houten told [The Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2017/07/29/game-throness-carice-van-houten-death-threats-fans-people-take/) in July that returning to work so soon after giving birth was not without its share of difficulties. “It was not great timing,” she said. “So I had a little bit of a breakdown one day when I was with Emilia \[Clarke\]. I burst out crying and said, ‘I want to go home to my baby.’ You’re just completely full of hormones.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4951637/game-of-thrones-melisandre-behind-the-scenes-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4951637/game-of-thrones-melisandre-behind-the-scenes-photo/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones' Melisandre Just Shared an Epic Behind-the-Scenes Photo","datePublished":"2017-09-21T16:56:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:26.640Z","description":"Carice van Houten returned to set just six weeks after giving birth","url":"https://time.com/4951637/game-of-thrones-melisandre-behind-the-scenes-photo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","game of thrones","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe50c891af125743/6988d6e286f68e1fc76e5af5/game-of-thrones-stormborn-melisandre.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe50c891af125743/6988d6e286f68e1fc76e5af5/game-of-thrones-stormborn-melisandre.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"game-of-thrones-stormborn-melisandre","caption":"","creditText":"HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4951637/game-of-thrones-melisandre-behind-the-scenes-photo/","name":"Game of Thrones' Melisandre Just Shared an Epic Behind-the-Scenes Photo"}}]}] ```