Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham said he needed protection from crazed fans who swarmed him as he bought underwear.
The Dubliner recalled producers had to hire extra security to protect the cast in Spain after devotees broke into their hotels and banged on their doors.
He said: “There is nowhere you can go. We were filming in Spain and the fans broke into the hotel and were running around the corridors banging on doors trying to get to us.
“We had to fly additional security out.
“I was trying to buy – as we call them on the Northside – a pair of jocks and I remember walking out the door and the security jumping up.
“He was an ex-cop from the North Steve. He’s a lovely guy. He said where are you going? I replied, I’m just going to the shop’. He said, ‘I’ll come with you’.
“I said, ‘You’re not coming with me’ but he said, ‘I have to’. I said, ‘Steve, I’m going across the road to buy underwear, I do not want security’. He said ‘Look, I’ll just come with you’.
“I was in H&M perusing my trunks and I look around and Steve is standing with his arms open wide as if he is on the cross and there’s 30 people trying to get around him while I’m trying to buy a pair of underwear. Unbelievable.
“Spain was nuts,. It’s the bizarre thing, when you have to run out of bars in countries you have never been in before.”
Liam added Dublin is the only place he gets peace from fans and said he loves the healthy begrudgery.
He added: “They don’t give a sh*** here. It’s great. I do like the healthy begrudgery.
“There is a philosophy in Dublin is that you’ve either robbed someone, you’ve bought a lottery ticket and got lucky, or something happened by mistake. They don’t assume anything is earned.
“You were just in the right place at the right time. Nobody is competent enough to be successful. You’re jammy and you got lucky. And in a sense, they’re right.”
Speaking on Doireann Garrihy’s On The Laughs Of Your Life podcast, Liam also told of feeling guilty being away from his family while filming.
He is father to three children, Liam Jnr, Sean and Ellen.
But he recalled the guilt he felt when he was in China and his wife Colette called him to say his then 10-year-old son had to undergo an emergency
operation.
Liam said: “I got a phone call from my wife saying my son was about to go in for an emergency appendectomy.
“So he was going under the knife. I was with my daughter. I had brought my daughter over who was 14 at the time.
“My daughter had to talk me down. We were out and about for a walk.
“I think it was Shanghai and I was feeling like I was a complete selfish b*****d because I was indulging myself with my passion, my love of making movies, which is not the most essential thing people can do on the planet.
“It’s not cardiovascular surgery. I was feeling incredibly selfish and incredibly guilty even though it pays the bills. You still feel like I’m not around for my boy, just to hold his hand or whatever.
“There was no way I could even hop on a plane.”
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