Sean Bean long ago became synonymous with death, meeting his maker in a variety of ways onscreen. That includes being thrown from a satellite dish in Goldeneye, being peppered with arrows in The Fellowship of the Ring, and of course, getting beheaded in Game of Thrones. Hell, Bean was even a featured target on the Hitman series of video games. Everywhere he goes, he dies.
But now, the veteran actor has begun to refuse roles that end in his character dying, as he revealed in an interview with The Sun. That might sound like simple vanity, but the man who played the honorable and selfless Ned Stark so effectively has another reason for his newfound love of life:
I’ve turned down stuff. I’ve said, ‘They know my character’s going to die because I’m in it!’ I just had to cut that out and start surviving, otherwise it was all a bit predictable. I did do one job and they said, ‘We’re going to kill you’, and I was like, ‘Oh no!’ and then they said, ‘Well, can we injure you badly?’ and I was like, ‘OK, so long as I stay alive this time’.
Just like poor Ned, thinking of the greater good. After all, who wants a movie or television series spoiled for them like that?
Looking back, Bean has one small regret about his time on Game of Thrones.”They made it very clear at the time I was going to die, and I thought, ‘I don’t want to get stuck in one of these series that lasts seven years’. But I wish I’d have got stuck now! But it was very clear what (GoT author) George R.R. Martin wanted to happen to Ned — and it did.”
Moving on, Bean weighed in on who he’d like to play the next James Bond after Daniel Craig exits the role. Remember: Bean’s James Bond villain was personally killed in 1995’s Goldeneye by then-Bond Pierce Brosnan. Naturally, Bean backs his Game of Thrones son Richard Madden (Robb Stark) for the role:
He’s got everything that’s required of the role. He’s strong, he’s masculine and he’s also got a soft underbelly, he’s vulnerable, good looking — Scottish! I can’t see why he wouldn’t get the part. Everybody was great who came through Game Of Thrones. But I always sensed he was a very fine actor. He had gravity and that thing we talked about at drama school — presence. He had a lot of presence.
We love Bean praising his former onscreen son, and it wasn’t the only compliment he paid his former costars. When asked about the careers of his other Game of Thrones children — Kit Harington (Jon), Maisie Williams (Arya) and Sophie Turner (Sansa) — Bean piled on the praise like a proper father. “They’re bigger stars than me. They were so much younger at the time as it was eight years ago, but now you see them in Vogue and all these magazines. It’s a fairytale come true.”
See? Can we please stop killing this man off already Hollywood? Sean Bean deserves better!
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