Kit Harington talks life after Game of Thrones: “It never goes away”

Working on Game of Thrones has been a decade-long journey for the cast, crew, and fans, and it will all come to an end very, very soon. Kit Harington (Jon Snow) reflects back on his iconic character in an interview with Emmy Magazine. Harington had a lot to say about how it all started and where it all went, including marrying co-star Leslie Rose (Ygritte).

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A bastard who felt out of place at Winterfell, Jon Snow didn’t come from the happiest place, and wasn’t known for his humor. We couldn’t agree more with Harington when he says that he’s “played possibly the unfunniest character ever to have graced television.” We’re sure Jon has smiled at some point in the series, but we can’t remember exactly when.

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Harington conducted the interview in the comfort of his own home, basking in normalcy. He’s currently doing a play, and his wife is on the critically-acclaimed CBS All-Access series The Good Fight. Life has gone on since he said goodbye to Game of Thrones, but it will always stay with him.

"No, it never goes away. It’s always there. I get that. What’s nice at the moment is having to change my appearance for True West. Having stepped away from it physically, it already feels like it’s a part of my past. It always felt like a domineering presence in my life. Even now that it hasn’t come out yet, I still feel I’m separate from it: I’m moving on."

But don’t mistake his moving on for not caring. He recalls that he was an emotional mess after wrapping on his final scene, bidding farewell to the cast and crew. Is there a video of this somewhere?

"David and Dan [Benioff and Weiss, the showrunners] said a few things about each of the actors as we finished. I sort of started sobbing. I couldn’t get through what I wanted to say. It felt very much like school-leavers, but from the most important school I’ve been to by a long way."

Benioff and Weiss joined the Emmy interview via email and had a few things to say about Harington’s early days on Game of Thrones. The moment he began speaking at his audition, the showrunners knew that he would be Jon Snow. For those of you who didn’t know, Game of Thrones was Harington’s first job on-screen!

"I was about to go onstage on War Horse when I got the call saying, ‘You got the pilot.’ I was sharing a flat with my friends and we were obsessed with HBO — The Wire, The Sopranos — so to think I was going to be in something like that… I mean, I never could have predicted it would be this big, or bigger."

The showrunners, along with Harington’s colleagues, all sing his praises as a performer. According to them, he never let the show’s notoriety go to his head. According to Benioff and Weiss, his talent often goes unrecognized. “Kit is so good at playing Jon that he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the mastery of his performance,” they said. “Jon never gets the clever ripostes — he’s not a wit, he’s not loquacious, he always seems a bit uncomfortable when he’s speaking in front of a group of people.”

Luckily for Harington, his cynical group of friends will always be around to keep him grounded:

"I’m sure I have at times started to believe my own hype a bit. It’s a very seductive kind of feeling, going into rooms in L.A. or walking onto a film set or having people look at you in the street. You need a healthy level of cynicism around you. I’ve got some of the most cynical friends going."

If you ever need someone to keep you in check, I volunteer as tribute, Mr. Harington.

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