HBO's Senior Vice President for Production, Jay Roewe, has spoken about how Northern Ireland changed his life and the life of HBO, after it served as the filming location for Game of Thrones.
It comes as the show celebrates the 10th anniversary of its first episode, which was broadcast on April 17th 2011.
Jay Roewe was instrumental in bringing the Game of Thrones franchise to Northern Ireland and has helmed some of HBO’s most successful shows over 20+ years.
Jay was speaking to Chalet 9's Gerard McGuigan, as part of their new podcast series, 'Conversations...with Interesting People'.
Speaking about his appreciation for Northern Ireland and the time spent making Game of Thrones here, Jay said: "I say thank you to Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland changed my life and the life of HBO. And it was an incredible partnership.
"One of the things that hit me in the midst of all of that, is that I remember how - to do a TV show, and see people react to it and get emotional - it's a wonderful part of entertainment."
Jay adds that he was able to see how filming in Belfast also changed the lives of people in the city, many of whom were given their first opportunity to work on a major filming production.
He said: "In the case of Game of Thrones, we changed people's lives on the ground where we were filming. And I'll never forget, every year some people would come over from Northern Ireland, from Cinemagic. They'd come to HBO and sit down, and we had kids who, their parents had worked on Game of Thrones, and some of the kids had even started working on Game of Thrones as well."
He added that the show had had a major impact on culture and tourism in Northern Ireland, saying: "By the end of it, you couldn't go anywhere in Belfast, without the store or the restaurant having been affected by it."
Jay and Gerard’s talk also covers everything from filming Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland to how Belfast changed the life of HBO and why Northern Ireland (and its world-class talent) is a go-to destination for industry leaders and film & TV production in 2021.
The podcast marks Chalet 9's first venture venturing into the podcast space. The Belfast-based company have said that they will be developing further podcasts featuring "one to one conversations with a number of visionaries and entertainment industry leaders."
The premiere episode of the series will be available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts in early May. The series was created & produced by Gerard and his brother, Chalet 9 co-founder and Belfast-based film Director, Leo McGuigan.
More teasers for the full series will be available on the company’s Instagram page, @chalet__9.
