Warning, there are some spoilers for Game of Thrones below.
Friends, Euron Greyjoy, also known as “this f*cking guy again!?” was the biggest putz on Game of Thrones. I dare you to name a bigger dingus on the show (who doesn’t also write, produce, and direct it. Yeah, I said it, rape should not be your go-to vehicle to move a plot forward, bros.)—and while I have been known to want to bang-a-rang some of the less obvious choices on Game of Thrones, Evil-Pacey is a hard pass from me always and forever because Euron really, really sucked.
So, you’ll imagine my surprise when I realized that Euron is merely a character and that the actor who plays him probably isn’t the worst. How do I know this? Well, it turns out he used to babysit for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s children.
OK. So first off, the guy’s name isn’t “that guy who plays that a*shole on Game of Thrones who keeps popping up out of nowhere to ruin everyone’s buzz.” Nope, it’s Pilou Asbaek, and he’s from Denmark like Coster-Waldau. So that’s two things those guys have in common already: They both have names and they’re both from the same country.
People.com, as always, is here to shed some light on this (even though the original source is Entertainment Weekly, I am true blue for People for reasons unknown even to me.)
In a recent conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Asbaek revealed that he has a long friendship with Coster-Waldau, stemming from their childhood living in Denmark together. In fact, Asbaek used to watch Coster-Waldau’s kids!
“We’re actually good friends because we both come from Denmark and — he will hate me saying this, but it’s true —- I was the manny for his kids before I became an actor in 2003,” Asbaek told EW. “I was like 19, 20 years old. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I thought I wanted to be a teacher because I love kids. I was like a substitute teacher at a kindergarten and his kids were there and I was a manny for them.”
OK. Just for the record of Pajiba/the internet. I really, really hate the word “manny.” Nothing good comes from that, and I’m including that kid on Modern Family, who I’ve heard through the grapevine that he’s a weird little kid who’s also not a little kid anymore, but that doesn’t change my opinion of him or the word in general.
I mean, I guess I’m willing to concede that Asbaek isn’t “that f*cking guy” in real life…at least, I would hope that’s not true. I’d hate to imagine him popping up at family occasions, out of the blue, like, from behind a corner or something, and everyone rolling their eyes, giving a jerk-off motion, and muttering “this f*cking guy again” while he smirks and loudly laughs, proclaiming things about himself that no one cares about, or has any interest in…that would be kind of rough on him (and his family.) Anyway, I found the story of him watching Coster-Waldau’s kids pretty endearing, mainly because I was that type of kid who really believed that the people on TV could see what I was doing through the screen, and were performing for me real-time. I guess I’m always surprised in real life that there is this thing called acting, and that perhaps Asbaek isn’t a huge jagweed.
Anyway. The point of all this is, if you encounter Pilou Asbaek out and about and you need something to say to him, why not ask him to come home with you and babysit your kids, so you and yours can have a nice evening out? Hey. Stranger things have happened… (like Dany hearing some bells and all of a sudden burning down an entire city because the plot dictated it so.)
Header Image Source: Getty
