The ‘Game of Thrones’ scenes Kit Harington found “horrific”
Despite being an expansive production rooted deeply in the world of fantasy, Kit Harington still found himself taken aback by just how little he would enjoy shooting the more action-packed and exciting moments in Game of Thrones.
In what marked the actor’s first-ever screen credit, the role of Jon Snow turned him into a star and launched his entire career, yielding a Golden Globe nomination and two Primetime Emmy nods along the way. Like most of the series’ largely unknown cast, he was a made man after playing a plum part in one of the 21st century’s biggest and most popular shows, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
Not to state the obvious, but dragons play a huge part in the lore and mythology of Westeros, even if it was a while before Harington came face-to-face with one of the fearsome creatures in a meaningful capacity. When he did, he was forced to admit that co-star Emilia Clarke had been entirely correct to bemoan the amount of screentime she spent alongside beasts that were added in post-production by the effects team.
“Emilia had been moaning about it for seasons, and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. You have not been through the mud in Northern Ireland,'” he said to The Hollywood Reporter. “But she was absolutely right. It was horrific. It’s not acting at all. It is not acting; it never will be acting, and it is not what I’d signed up for. It is very uncomfortable as a man.”
As well as having to act opposite dragons that weren’t there, Harington wasn’t too keen on being strapped into the rig used to give the impression the performers were riding the beasts. He may have claimed it wasn’t what he signed up for, but there aren’t many major players in any of Game of Thrones‘ eight seasons who didn’t end up getting their hands dirty in a full-on effects-heavy action sequence at least once, so it can’t have been completely unexpected.
He didn’t have any issues taking top billing in Paul W.S. Anderson’s greenscreen-heavy historical epic Pompeii, though, never mind his appearance as the only human main character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s CGI-driven The Eternals. The critically panned project revolved around a race of immortal aliens who’d set up shop on Earth millennia ago.
He must have gotten used to the rigours of blockbuster-style filmmaking eventually, then, and he surely would have become more sympathetic to Clarke’s plight as a result after treating her “moaning” of her constant dragon scenes as being unreasonable until he got to experience it for himself. It’s one of the show’s most widely-quoted soundbites for a reason, but when it came to his knowledge and preparedness for working opposite a dragon, you know nothing, Jon Snow.
