Kit Harington says playing Jon Snow was making him lazy

Kit Harington’s one man show, entitled “Hi, I’m Still Dead!” rolled up to the print edition of the Radio Times this week, and some of his comments are making waves. It’s one thing to talk about how dead your character is, and how much you’ll miss being on Game of Thrones, when most people probably think you’re a big old fibber. It’s another to start putting down the work you did in the part that made you famous.

To be fair, I’m pretty sure that’s not what Harington was attempting to do here. As the son of thespians, he has a particular affinity for stage work, even if it was television that made him a household name. I think he’s talking more about how excited he is to be doing new roles, and more importantly, doing them on stage every night, which is a very different from filming a TV show. But you decide:

All actors crave variety and there can be a laziness you slip into when you go back to a character every year, and I definitely slipped into it in the past. So there’s a point where you go, ‘I’m an actor. I got into this to play lots of different roles.’ I need to do everything possible in my ‘out’ period. That gap in series needs to be as challenging as possible.

It’s very good for Harington to challenge himself as an actor,and I’m certain that none of his fans will begrudge him the chance to do that. It’s also pretty insightful that Harington sees that he wasn’t always doing his best work on Thrones—like many of the actors who played the Stark children, this was his first television role, and he’s grown into the part as he played it. Personally, I’m glad he’s taking on the challenge of Doctor Fautus—I hope he gets good reviews as well. Considering that some of his big screen efforts have been badly panned, taking to the stage is probably a good change of pace.

Also, note Harington’s wording at the end of the quote above. “That gap in series needs to be as challenging as possible.” If you asked Harington. he’d probably tell you that he meant the gap between television series work. But we all know he probably just means the gap between filming seasons of Game of Thrones.

h/t Express