Keisha Castle-Hughes trained with a walking stick instead of a spear for Game of Thrones

Keisha Castle-Hughes trained with a retractable walking stick for her stint on Game of Thrones. Photo/HBO

She's armed with a deadly spear for her role as a deadly warrior called Obara on Game of Thrones.

But Keisha Castle-Hughes - who had her biggest fight scene in Monday night's episode - has admitted she sometimes trained with a walking stick because she couldn't travel with her spear.

In a new interview published on HBO's website, Castle-Hughes said she travelled with a retractable walking stick so she could practice while on the road.

"The shoot was spread out over such a long time, so I went back and forth quite a bit from Belfast to where I live in New Zealand," the actress said.

"I wasn't allowed to check a seven-foot spear on the plane, so I had a retractable walking stick. I was lucky enough that I could work with our assistant stunt coordinator, Paul Shapcott, in New Zealand.

"I had a spear there, a spear in Belfast and my retractable walking cane in between."

The Whale Rider star said she spent months training in the Chinese martial art wushu before her scenes were filmed, but admitted the hardest thing was getting used to the sound of whips cracking from Obara's other Sand Sisters.

"One of the most difficult things was the fact that three women are simultaneously together - we had to learn to work in each other's space. I don't know if you've ever heard a bullwhip crack, but it is one of the loudest, abrupt, freaky sounds. It's so scary - it blows out your eardrums.

"When we were training, we'd be in the stunt tent in Belfast. Jess [Henwick, Nym Sand] would be cracking her whip for eight hours a day. It honestly took like six weeks for both Rosabell [Laurenti Sellers, Tyene Sand] and me to stop flinching. It was important that the sound became soothing to us."

Castle-Hughes has also admitted having a crush on Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister on the show and sparred against her during Monday night's fight scene.

"Nikolaj is a very beautiful man and he is also one of the leads of one of the biggest shows in the world - I was like, 'Oh wow, this just got really real," she told Access Hollywood.

- nzherald.co.nz