How well does George R.R. Martin know Game of Thrones? He did create the franchise, after all.
Amy Poehler was recently called upon to help quiz the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire books that inspired the hit HBO fantasy series on Late Night with Seth Meyers, hosted by her old friend and fellow SNL alum. On Tuesday's episode of the NBC show, the Parks and Recreation actress recited quotes from Martin's books and he was asked to name the character who said them.
"When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die," she said, quoting a line the ruthless Cersei Lannister says to Lord Ned Stark in the 1996 novel A Game of Thrones, the first book in his series, which was also uttered in season 1 of the show in 2011.
"Cersei, from House Lannister," Martin replied. (Interesting note: He pronounces the character's name differently ("CER-say") than the way it is uttered by actors on Game of Thrones ("CER-See").
Then Poehler springs a couple of trick questions, one of which may have been asked as an excuse to get Martin to say THAT name, and she and Meyers also made some up. The actress also did her best impression of what could be a stereotypical drunken Dothraki.
Both Poehler and Martin appeared on the show to promote new books, although his, sadly, is not the anticipated sixth A Song of Ice and Fire novel, The Winds of Winter. Poehler's humorous memoir, Yes Please, marks her first book and was released on Tuesday. Martin is promoting The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire), which was released the same day.
During the show, Poehler and Seth reminisced about their first and second meetings, before they worked together on SNL. The actress said she remembered neither encounter, including one in which she and Tina Fey had plucked him from the audience to take part in a sketch and improv show they were performing in Chicago.
"You told me the story and I was like...you made no impression of me," she joked.