The Aussie actor Theon beat up wants to be back in season 8

Remember that bearded Ironborn dude who slugged it out with Theon on the Dragonstone beach in the season 7 finale? His name is Harrag, and he’s played by Brendan Cowell. While the Australian-born Cowell isn’t well-known stateside, he’s done lots of shows in Australia and England. Cowell sat down with News Corp Australia to talk about how he got his Game of Thrones role, and how he tried to make sure HBO brought Harrag back for season 8.

To make sure he was still in the running for season 8, Cowell did his best to avoid looking like a corpse after Theon punched Harrag into oblivion. “I made sure I didn’t do the blank-eye look,” he said about his last scene in “The Dragon and the Wolf.”

Did it work? He “can’t really comment” on whether Harrag appears again in season 8. “Who knows, it’s a mystery. I probably know as much as you as to whether I’m alive or dead.”

Though he wasn’t a big Game of Thrones fan before he got cast, Cowell has certainly been bitten by the Geroge R.R. Martin bug now:

"What an experience to go and be part of the Ironborn. In the last episode, you saw me throwing my weight around. We shot that in Bilbao in the north of Spain on this ancient beach, with this green-screen scaffolding where they put the kingdoms in … It’s wild. You see Jon Snow come down and you’re like, ‘It’s Jon Snow!’"

Cowell describes his time on set as “such a good experience. They’re a real family, that cast and crew, because they grew up together on this show, they’re all really close. And once you get in there and knock a few scenes out they’re lovely to be around.”

"And what’s great with the show is it gives you full license to play really carnal characters because it’s a brutal world. You can be incredibly violent and you don’t have to give a reason, you don’t need to give a backstory, everyone’s surviving and everyone will kill and eat anything they need to at any time. So as an actor it’s a wonderful world to just be ferocious behind the eyes and not question it."

Naturally, Cowell ended up getting particularly close with Alfie Allen (Theon), who he described as “a really nice guy. You beat the s— out of each other for a while then go, ‘Oh, maybe we’re friends!’”

So how did Cowell, 41, get the part of Harrag? Well, he’s currently starring in the Olivier-winning UK stage production of Yerma. His role in the heavy drama got him noticed by Game of Thrones casting director Robert Sterne. “Yerma ended up this incredible audition to the whole town [London] for me,” Cowell said. “I was part of this rocketing, bullet-to-the-heart piece of art and everybody came to see it. Every night you’re like, ‘Oh look out there, there’s that director …’ The whole town came.”

"I met Robert Sterne after and he said, ‘Hey there’s this role, could you come in in the morning and maybe we can push you through’. So I knew the directors wanted something slightly different, so I did that, probably did two or three auditions then got the call: ‘How do you feel about playing Harrag, an Ironborn in Game of Thrones?’ I’d been here eight months … ‘That sounds OK to me!"

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 30: Brendan Cowell arrives ahead of the 5th AACTA Awards Presented by Presto | Industry Dinner Presented by Blue Post at The Star on November 30, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for AFI)

Game of Thrones is famous for its secrecy, to the point where Cowell was “reluctant to admit” that he’d gotten the part to anyone, including his family members. “People are so obsessed with this show that if you wore a certain piece of clothing people go, ‘Does that mean that? Does that mean he’s this?’ — people jump to all these spoilers. So I hadn’t said anything about it, which builds up a big myth and then you realise I’ve only got three scenes and one of them is standing next to a boat saying nothing!”

He did tell one relative: a nephew he laughingly says “is so obsessed with the show I think he thinks might actually be taking place.”

Apparently, a lot of Australians didn’t recognize Cowell under his big beard and Ironborn armor. He certainly looks different than he does on the red carpet, as above. In Westeros, one glowering burly bearded guy dressed in greys and browns looks much like all the rest. “I don’t think there’s really a summer line in Game of Thrones,” Cowell said. “[I]t’s not like they bring out the pastels …”

Will Brendan Cowell and Harrag be back for season 8? It would be great to see him again. Why? Because a near-death beating like that makes an Ironborn a loyal follower, and Theon is going to need all the help he can get.

Next: Writer Jane Goldman promises humor and gore in her Game of Thrones prequel project

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