Making Game of Thrones never felt like “a big deal” to Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm)

Jacob Anderson wears many hats: he’s an actor on shows like AMC’s Interview With The Vampire and makes music under the name Raleigh Ritchie. But most people probably still know him as Grey Worm, Daenerys Targaryen’s loyal lieutenant on Game of Thrones.

That show ended in 2019, after growing in popular for eight straight seasons; by the end, it became a full-blown cultural phenomenon. Speaking to NME, Anderson says he still “hasn’t settled into” the experience. “The experience of making that show was so different to the way it was being perceived and metabolised by people who watched it,” he said. “It was such a big deal, but it never really felt that way to me because the way we made the show felt quite small.”

One of the best things about Game of Thrones was that it was an epic story where you still felt like you knew the characters intimately. I can understand how it might feel like “no big deal” to the people who worked on it. You might not realize how huge it was until you turned up at a premiere to a crowd of screaming fans.

Emilia Clarke was “a delightful human being all day” on Game of Thrones

Also, a lot of work on film sets involves standing around while people set up shots. If you’re playing a character like Grey Worm, even after the cameras start rolling, you still might not get to do much. “There were lots of days on Game of Thrones where I was just stood there in my armor looking stoic, trying to keep as still as possible, and wasn’t necessarily a participant in every scene,” Anderson told Big Issue. “But something I learned was that you don’t have to be speaking to be part of telling a story. I learned how you can do a lot with your face and your body. Not to sound pretentious, but you have to be present, keep watching the scene, and stay part of it. You have to make yourself a participant.”

"But I also got to see Emilia Clarke and Peter Dinklage being joyful, brilliant people to be around in Game of Thrones. If there were days on Interview With The Vampire when I was really tired, it was good to remember that Emilia used to get up at four in the morning to have that wig put on and she would be a delightful human being all day."

On Interview With The Vampire, Anderson plays Louis, a melancholic New Orleans man who is turned into a vampire by the hedonistic Lestat, played by Sam Reid. The first season, available to watch now on both Max and AMC+, was excellent. And since the show is based on Anne Rice’s expansive Vampire Chronicles novels, the series could last a while, giving us ample opportunity to see what Anderson can do in a lead role.

Jacob Anderson and Louis the vampire are alike, except that Louis kills people

“To be honest, there’s a big part of me that thought I would have an absolute meltdown doing this [role],” Anderson said of playing Louis. “It’s difficult for me to talk too specifically about the similarities that Louis and I have, but, like, there are things in this show [where] I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can go there without melding myself and Louis together too much.”

"He thinks of himself as a monster because of the choices he’s made, guilt and things that he’s repressed. And like I said, I can’t exactly relate to the vampirism part of it, but I feel cripplingly aware of how human and fallible I am every day. I really feel shame and guilt about things that I probably need to feel shame and guilt about. The difference [between us] is I go to therapy. Louis’ therapist in our show is Daniel."

Anderson summed it up like this: “Aside from the people-eating, I’d say Louis and myself are pretty similar.”

Without the love story between Louis and Lestat, “there’s no show”

The relationship between Lestat and Louis is at the heart of Interview With The Vampire. The show presents them unambiguously as a couple, something that the 1994 movie starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise did not do.

“They are in a romantic relationship in the books,” Anderson said. “They’re married by the end. Maybe Anne Rice didn’t fully know what their relationship was at first – the style is very different in the first book. Lestat is this kind of goblin monster torturing Louis. But when you look back with the context from further books, you see this man was just very repressed and so hurt by what happened between him and Lestat that he couldn’t acknowledge him as his lover, as his partner, as his great love.”

"But by the second book, they’re absolutely a couple. And because we’re adapting the whole of The Vampire Chronicles and taking things from later books and repurposing them, the idea of telling this story and them not being a couple… well, there’s no show! Their love story, as messed up as it is, is the heart of it."

Interview With The Vampire is one of a few shows that the Hollywood actors union has allowed to film even though actors are currently on strike. The show did take some weeks off, though. Anderson says he’s “very grateful to be back.” Hopefully this means that we can look forward to new episodes sometime in 2024, rather than having to wait another year.

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