Iain Glen talks book-to-screen changes and Jorah Mormont’s longevity

Jorah Mormont has spent the last six years of Game of Thrones wandering Essos in pursuit of the unrequited love-of-his-life Daenerys Targaryen. But when he’s not at the Mother of Dragons’ beck and call, actor Iain Glen has kept himself busy. While working on Thrones, Glen has simultaneously acted in a series of TV movies based on Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor novels. Glen plays the title character, who Stuff describes as a “disgraced cop-turned-private detective” who “investigates those cases that other people, including the police, won’t investigate.” It sounds like Glen has quite the handle on the whole “disgraced but nevertheless honorable working man” thing.

Between Thrones and Jack Taylor, Glen has experience appearing in literary adaptations, although he acknowledges he doesn’t always physically resemble the characters as described in the books. As he tells it, that’s certainly the case with Jorah:

"I don’t think I bear any physical resemblance whatsoever to the character that George R.R. Martin described in the books on which the series is based. I think he was a very dark-haired, wiry man with an ugly face–I’m not saying I don’t have an ugly face–and I think quite short and stocky […] But they probably thought it would be good if you could see why [Jorah and Daenerys] might get it together. If you had an ugly stump of a man who had no chance whatsoever and was fairly repellent then it would be harder for them to tell that story."

Speaking as someone who’s been a fan of Handsomest Man On the Planet Ser Jorah Mormont from the beginning, I have to thank the showrunners for for casting Glen. Still, they probably could have gone Martin’s route with the character and the audience would still speculate about a romance between Jorah and Daenerys.

Glen also talked about Game of Thrones as a whole, and counted his blessings that Jorah had made it this far:

"I’ve always enjoyed playing Jorah. It’s been a role that’s been good to me so far […] There’s quite a high death count in Game of Thrones and they don’t blanch at removing favorite characters. They just get rid of them in a brutal way. My end may well be close but so far I’m doing okay."

Hmmm… Does this tell us anything about Jorah’s future on the show? Not really. Glen plays his cards close to the chest, and sounds like he’ll accept whatever lot he’s granted — or has been granted already. But Glen’s repeated use of the phrase “so far” suggests that Jorah lives through season 7, at least.

As for season 8… well, let’s just make it through season 7 first, and then we can panic about what a bloodbath it’s sure to be.