Iain Glen on Jorah’s love life and that deteriorating yellow outfit

Iain Glen has been playing the lovelorn Jorah Mormont for six years on Game of Thrones. He’s become pretty well-associated with the character, so fans may be surprised to learn that many in the UK know him best as another character: the hard-drinking Irish detective Jack Taylor, the main character in a series of the same name that’s been running since 2010, a year before Thrones debuted.

Vanity Fair’s Joanna Robinson, that publication’s Westeros correspondent, recently spoke to Glen about both characters, Jorah’s fate in the final two seasons of Game of Thrones, and his iconic yellow outfit (with blue scarf), which has to be getting pretty worn after six seasons of hard use. “They found it for me, a costume that just felt right,” he said. “I don’t know. It just felt like it belonged and belonged to him.”

"I think Jorah just needs to land in a safer place, and then he’ll have time to change his clothing. Get cleaned up a little."

We can’t imagine how it must smell by now — my god, the things its seen.

But with greyscale currently spreading all over Jorah’s body, fashion may be the least of his problems. “In all honesty, no one is more worried than me,” Glen said of Jorah’s prospects. “There’s a high death rate in Thrones, and I desperately don’t want to be part of that number. We’ll have to see what unfolds.”

After all, the guy still has so much to do before he dies. He’s been trying to win Daenerys’ love for six seasons, so far without success. Glen commented on how Jorah’s perpetual unluckiness in love strikes a chord with fans. “Yeah, it’s sweet, the fan reactions. I think that they wish Jorah well, and I think they wish he would—that he deserves physical love in return or something. I don’t know. I mean, the male fans react a little differently. But there is a certain female fan where maybe they see themselves in the story, and as long as you’re failing as Jorah, you’re maybe still more available for them in a funny way.”

"Jack is a polar opposite in that he will get himself into terrible sexual pickles all the time, and is always doing very inappropriate things like having sex with the major suspect and that sort of stuff. He goes there without thinking and then ponders it afterwards, and Jorah ponders it too much, I think. Not that Jorah’s ever going to get it. Well, he might. Who knows?"

Game of Thrones season 7 debuts on July 16. In the meantime, fans can catch Glen in Jack Taylor on Acorn TV.