Jacob Anderson, aka Raleigh Ritchie, aka Grey Worm, has been with Game of Thrones since season 3, and with the end of the show finally in sight, he’s contemplating his next move, but only just. “It’s all kind of up in the air at the moment,” he told Syfywire in a lengthy interview. “I just want to do things that are really fun, and I get to live out those childhood fantasies, in the way that I very much do being Grey Worm, I get to learn these really complex fight scenes and fight sequences, I’d love to do more stuff like that. I want to wear funny costumes and pretend to be heroic, I would love to do that. Maybe I’m slyly trying to hint that if anybody wants to cast me in a comic book movie, I’m down. I’m ready.”
Feelers officially put out.
Anderson is really engaging in the interview, and revealed some specifics about those childhood fantasies he mentioned above. “As a kid, growing up, as far as I was concerned I was Luke Skywalker,” he said. “Any sort of small victory or any adversity I would come up against at school I was like, ‘How would Luke Skywalker deal with this?’ Everybody was the Empire, anybody who bullied me at school was the Empire.” Pretending to be Peter Parker would work in a pinch.
He gave that whole spiel when talking about his various geeky interests, making himself sound like certain people who may or may not write for this website. “I watch films and TV almost like as a hobby, not even as a hobby, it’s bordering on careerist. It would be easier to tell you what I’m not into than what I am.” Preach.
This is what I actually do when I find a really well hidden Moon. #SuperMarioOdyssey pic.twitter.com/aPeoQLUAGG
— Jacob Anderson (@jacobanderson) October 29, 2017
But despite his interest in nerdy pursuits of all kinds, Anderson isn’t much of a fantasy fiction guy, and had some misconceptions about Game of Thrones when he was first cast. “I hadn’t watched Lord of the Rings, I’m gonna get so much flack for this, but I hadn’t watched Lord of the Rings when I started watching Game of Thrones.”
"I thought, my understanding was that it was an adult Lord of the Rings, and I feel now like that really couldn’t be further from the truth. And yeah, so when I watched the show I was really surprised by everything else, aside from the kind of fantasy elements. So I really loved the show, and I never thought in a million years that I would have been a part of it."
On that subject, while Anderson couldn’t comment on season 8, he was happy to talk about Grey Worm’s journey in season 7.* For example, what were the Unsullied doing between getting stranded at Casterly Rock and showing up outside King’s Landing in the finale?
"We had to walk back! The thing is, it’s not that they’re stuck, it’s just that it’s a three-week walk back to civilization. But I just thought, I’m gonna be the first Game of Thrones character to die from starvation. If we had known, maybe we would’ve packed some tins of fruit or something."
Anderson apparently spends a lot of time thinking Grey Worm is going to die, and was especially surprised he survived season 7. “I think every time Grey Worm kind of finds himself in a tight spot, I’ve always thought ‘well, that’s it, then.'” Alarm bells went off when Grey Worm and Barristan Selmy fought off the Sons of the Harpy back in season 5, too, but Grey Worm keeps pulling through. He’s only got to last one more year…
By this point in the show, he at least has battle experience on his side. Anderson said that he enjoys performing fight choreography, particularly since the Unsullied’s “robotic and methodical” fighting style is such a good fit for him. “It was quite good for me because it’s not like sort of fluid, I actually find that a bit easier to be a bit more blocky and robotic about it.” And he never had more fun than when filming the invasion of Casterly Rock in “The Queen’s Justice”:
"The thing is, I always feel jealous because everybody else gets swords, and a spear is not great in a confined space. It’s not very easy to swing that around your head in a small space. So as soon as they said you’re gonna go up some stairs, and then down a corridor, I was like, ah… great."
Grey Worm’s other main thread in season 7 involved his budding romance with Missandei, who consummated their relationship, despite their unique difficulties, in “Stormborn.”
"It’s really nice that the response has been so positive, because I think as well that the thing with that relationship is it’s not about power,” Anderson said. “There’s no sort of game in their relationship. They’re falling in love with each other and that’s kind of it for their story. So it’s really nice that that plot that doesn’t really forward the overall “game” I guess — that people have the patience for that and that people buy into it is really cool. I think they have a really lovely relationship, it’s not really like any other relationship in the show. They don’t get anything out of it except each other, which is rare in the world of manipulation and “sex is power.” You know?"
Again, they only have to make it through one more season. C’mon, love: conquer all.
Finally, Syfiwire asked Anderson the question Game of Thrones cast members always get asked: who should end up on the Iron Throne? As far as characters go, Anderson is all in on his favorite: Brienne of Tarth. “I don’t know how good she’d be on the throne, I don’t think she’s power-ambitious, but I feel like I would trust her with my life and with society at large.”
But for actors, it’s gotta the woman who plays his boss: “I would say Emilia Clarke. Not only is she one of the most professional human beings I’ve ever met, she is just really kind and reasonable, and I think she would make a wonderful queen.”
One more time, it all depends on one more measly year…
Next: John Bradley: Every character is placed 'in a completely alien environment' in season 8
To stay up to date on everything Game of Thrones, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channel
*It’s unclear if Anderson could reveal much if he wanted to, since apparently he doesn’t get all the scripts at once, or at least, he didn’t for seasons 5 and 7.