Over the course of its run, Game of Thrones had several moments that basically took over pop culture: there was the execution of Ned Stark early on, there was a shock over the Red Wedding, there was the helpless clamor after the death of Jon Snow, and there was the storm of rage that spread across the internet after the ending landed with a thud. Overall, a pretty exciting resume.
The ending in particular is still being debated, with cast members routinely being asked what they thought of it whenever they’re out promoting a new project. The latest is Iain Glen, who played Daenerys Targaryen’s faithful right-hand man Jorah Mormont for all eight seasons.
Although, to start, Glen weighed in on the celebrity that the show brought him; apparently Spanish fans are particularly passionate. “People just completely grab you and start kissing you and taking selfies without permission, but somehow the Spanish do it in a way that is very forgivable!” he told the Independent. “Who could begrudge on a daily basis someone saying, ‘Hey, I can’t believe it, you’re fantastic’? I think most people in life could do with a bit of that.”
Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) defends the ending of Game of Thrones
As for the ending of the show, Glen can see where the complaints are coming from, but it’s understandably hard for him to sympathize. “Where it landed in the end was not what a lot of what people wanted,” he said, “but Game of Thrones had done that from the beginning, and it had always been exciting. No one wanted Ned Stark to get beheaded in the first season – ‘no, that is really wrong, that couldn’t happen!’ – but he did. And so throughout the series, those sorts of unexpected things happened.”
"I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Being inside it, I really could understand and supported the decisions that were made by the writers and where they took the story. But Game of Thrones is like my child, so maybe it’s no surprise for me to say that!"
Jorah Mormont actually died shortly before all the really controversial stuff happened, in the season 8 episode “The Long Night.” The controversy didn’t really pick up until his beloved Daenerys rained fire down on the people of King’s Landing a couple episodes later in “The Bells.”
You can next see Glen as the malevolent child abductor Angus Speelman in the South African detective drama The Cane Field Killings, which premieres this Sunday. “I have played the odd psycho in the past, people from the more disturbed end of things,” Glen said. “It comes disconcertingly easily to me. I don’t know why that is.”
Jorah Mormont this role is not, although it sounds pretty interesting.
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