‘Game Of Thrones’ stars had to pay for their own Emmy nominations

Of all the actors who were nominated for Emmys this week, we’d wager Gwendoline Christie, Alfie Allen, and Carice van Houten are probably the most pleased.

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That’s because HBO didn’t actually submit them for nomination for their work on Game Of Thrones - they did it themselves through representatives, paying a couple of hundred dollars each for the privilege. It’s always good to know money has been well spent.

It’s extremely rare for self-submitted performances to go on to be nominated, but it was worth the risk for Brienne, Theon and Melisandre; Christie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, while Allen got the nod for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Van Houten has been nominated for Best Guest Actress in the same category.

Read more: Basically Everyone on 'Game of Thrones' Got an Emmy Nomination

The nominations mean that Game of Thrones’ final season received 32 nominations (a new record for a drama series), and a single season record of 137 for HBO.

HBO could be forgiven for forgetting about the self-submitted trio, it had already put forward Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Lena Headey and Maisie Williams up for the awards race - all of whom received nominations.

Gwendoline Christie didn’t go out of her way to hide her happiness, but why should she? It’s her first ever nomination, and it was entirely self-driven.

Carice van Houten expressed her surprise at the nod, which is probably more related to the odds against self-submitted nominations being successful than it is the fact she was potentially up for an award, as obviously she organised it herself.

The same goes for Alfie Allen, who also seemed shocked by the nomination, claiming to be ‘not expecting’ it. He probably should have expected it, as it was his idea.

The 71st Emmy Awards airs on Sunday 22 September from LA's Microsoft Theatre.

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