(Picture: HBO)
Kit Harington literally had the weight of Westeros on his shoulders when Jon Snow died in Game of Thrones, only to be revived by The Red Witch Melisandre.
Between the dramatic cliffhanger of season five when Jon Snow was stabbed by several men of the Night’s Watch and the season six episode The Red Woman, every move the 31-year-old made was analysed to the finest detail: From his haircut, to whatever airport he’d been photographed leaving.
We thought it was coming, but until the Bastard of Winterfell’s lifeless body leapt up for a gasp of air, Kit had to lie through his teeth during countless interviews, questions from fans and even probing from his pals.
‘I’ll tell you what’s not fun: it’s the biggest TV show in the world and you are the focus of that TV show because you are the cliffhanger,’ he said during this week’s edition of Timeout London.
‘That was frankly very disturbing. I didn’t like it. It was a trivial lie, but I was still lying to people.’
He added: ‘I just don’t even talk about the new season of “Thrones” – you say the smallest thing and someone will invent something around it. It’s a trap.’
So it’s no wonder Kit ruled out ever appearing in one of HBO’s planned spin-offs.
Speaking to the BBC about leaving the show, Kit said: ‘It was emotional to leave the job definitely.
‘But I wouldn’t say I was sad: if like me you go all the way back to the pilot of Game Of Thrones, that’s almost 10 years of your life – that’s really unusual in an actor’s career.
‘It was a huge emotional upheaval leaving that family. But would I want to go back and do more? Not on your life.’
Instead, Kit has seized the opportunity to shed his trademark locks and grown a moustache to star alongside Johnny Flynn in the West End adaptation of Sam Shephard’s play, True West.
Game of Thrones returns to HBO and Sky Atlantic in April 2019.
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