“Hey, they were in Game of Thrones”—Where else have you seen these 55 GoT cast members? (Part 2)

48) ART PARKINSON

As a very minor character whose biggest moment was dying mid-sprint at the hands of Ramsay Bolton (Serpentine, Rickon! Serpentine!), Irish actor Art Parkinson didn’t have time to show off his chops as Rickon Stark. Rickon appeared in seasons 1, 2 and 3, but had to wait offscreen until season 6. It was then that producers told Parkinson his now adolescent character was going to be offed. As Parkinson tells IGN, he was eventually okay with it:

"Whenever I was told that I was coming back for Season 6, before they sent me through the scripts and stuff, they sent me through a ring just to say, ‘Listen, so that you don’t get a shock whenever you read the scripts, just know that you die this season.’ It was sad at first, but once I realized how I was going to die in it, then it was cool. It was a cool death, and it was always going to be a good death, so at the same time, I was pretty happy."

Before Game of Thrones, Parkinson had only appeared onscreen in the film Freakdog in 2008, but since then he’s accumulating credits on some pretty big films like The Anomaly (2014), Dracula Untold (2014, above), Love, Rosie (2014), San Andreas (2015, below), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016, voice), I Kill Giants (2017) and Zoo (2017).

As for the whole running-in-a-straight line issue, Parkinson discussed it with IGN:

"Judging from Rickon’s last scene, I would say the way Ramsay did it was unexpected. He is quite an optimistic character, and he was always going to put up a good fight. Whenever he was told, “Run to your brother,” and he threw that little look back, I think it was disbelief. Then he [Ramsay] said, “Go on,” and he was like, “OK, I’m going to do it.” Then it was fear and dedication to the sprint and getting to his brother as soon as he saw the bow. (And about that lack of zig-zag?) I think that’s a question for the writers. As for my role, I need to stick to the script."

Parkinson is currently filming the crime/drama feature The Belly of the Whale.