Jack Gleeson on the unique challenges of playing Joffrey Baratheon

By all accounts, Jack Gleeson is a delightful human being. He’s involved in charity work, his fellow cast members speak very highly of him, and he looks adorable posing with puppies. See?

Still, Gleeson has had some trouble squaring his friendly personality with his Game of Thrones character, the legendarily sadistic Joffrey Baratheon. Joffrey may be dead, but his spirit continues to linger. When speaking at the recent IGN Convention in Abu Dhabi, which is a thing that happened, Gleeson confessed that he’d like to try showing a softer side in his next role.

"When I go back to acting, I will have to think about what kind of perception there will be with my new role and I would want to maybe play a positive character or nice guy next to dispel any kind of prejudices this character has built."

Gleeson’s comment about going “back to acting” is news in and of itself, since he had previously pondered leaving the profession entirely. He’s since started a theater company called Collapsing Horse, so perhaps he’s reevaluating his stance.

Gleeson also talked a bit about the unique difficulties of portraying a character as loathsome as Joffrey. “Playing Joffrey was more of a challenge because, as an actor, you always try to empathise with the character you’re playing and you try to understand them,” he said. “Even though how Joffrey behaves – he has no redeeming qualities – I tried to take pity on that and understand that all his evil acts are because of how he was brought up and the influences he had as a child. I just tried to cut him some slack.”

I’m not sure many people have it in their hearts to cut Joffrey from slack, but I guess you have to try if you’re going to understand what makes him tick. Even so, it wasn’t always easy for the polite and respectful Gleeson to inhabit the guy—he said that some of nastier onscreen behavior was “embarrassing, but you got to do what you got to do.”

As for a return to professional screen acting, I hope Gleeson goes for it. He’s certainly talented enough to make a go of it, and if he waits a while maybe people will have forgotten he played Joffrey and cast him in some gentler roles. Hopefully they don’t have access to YouTube.

Next: Maisie Williams isn't in Westeros anymore: a look at her work on Doctor Who