'Game of Thrones' actor Alexander Siddig slams HBO show's pay

Cast member Alexander Siddig poses at a cocktail party hosted by Vanity Fair and Spike TV to celebrate Spike's new event series “Tut,” at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, California, July 8, 2015. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok - RTX1JN5E

Alexander Siddig, who played Prince Doran Martell for six episodes of “Game of Thrones” said that the hit HBO show doesn’t pay that well.

He said his character was killed off the show four-episodes sooner than he was contracted for, but he isn’t sure that’s a bad thing.

“…I know that, from an actor’s point of view, professionally you don’t want to be on a show like that for too long, unless you are one of the top leads who originated the show, because your schedule gets kind of messed up,” he told StarTrek.com in a wide-ranging chat. “You don't earn as much as you would if you were doing another show because they're ‘Game of Thrones,’ and they don't have to pay anyone.”

Siddig played Dr. Julian Bashi on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” He said there was a lot of fan excitement when he was cast on “Throne,” which “might have been the kiss of death.”

“Maybe they didn’t want quite that much attention on that character,” he speculated. “Maybe they thought, ‘Well, let’s prove that we’re going to stray from the books. We’re going to do something else, and he will be our first example of that.’ So maybe that could have been the case. Or maybe I just screwed up. Maybe I said the wrong thing to the wrong person.”

Siddig said being on “Game of Thrones” was a very secretive experience.

“Everybody is paranoid about some leak on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube… I think the secrecy is kind of understandable, but also there is an element of hype about it that makes it… the more secretive it is, the more special it is. And certainly ‘Game of Thrones’ plays that. They misinform the crowd and they give them tidbits to send them in wrong directions,” he said.

He charged that perhaps HBO was behind the memorable episode leak that plagued the show.

“I am almost positive that those four episodes were leaked by HBO themselves,” he said “…. I can’t tell you that for sure; that’s just my opinion, but it’s games; everybody’s playing these games.”

Click here to read what else Siddig had to say to StarTrek.com