Game of Thrones made stars out of several of its cast members, and sometimes its side players made out better than its principle cast. Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke are still both very active on stage and screen, but the biggest success stories are probably Jason Momoa and Pedro Pascal, who were on the show for a season apiece before going on to have huge careers as leading men in Hollywood.
Then there’s someone like Jacob Anderson, who played Daenerys Targaryen’s loyal Unsullied warrior Grey Worm from Game of Thrones season 3 all the way to the end in season 8. He had a run on Doctor Who as Vinder, a whistleblowing pilot from the future; and plays lead character Louis in Interview With The Vampire, AMC’s excellent adaptation of Anne Rice’s classic horror novel.
But for a minute after Game of Thrones ended, Anderson didn’t want to act at all. “When you’re a part of a show for a really long time… I had a really great time on Game of Thrones, I have no complaints, but I was just tired at the end of that,” he told Digital Spy. “I just didn’t really want to act for a bit. I was getting lots of things through that were just playing Grey Worm again.”
After Game of Thrones, Jacob Anderson kept getting offers to “play Grey Worm again”
Things changed around the time Anderson got offered a part on Doctor Who, which he said yes to without even finding out who he was playing. “Doctor Who is a part of my childhood, and it was the quickest ‘yes’ ever,” he recalled. “It was like playing again. It was like a playground. I love that. I really love playing Vinder as well. I think he’s a really interesting character.”
Anderson played Vinder alongside Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, back when Chris Chibnall was running the show. Since then, original showrunner Russell T Davies has returned, so we don’t expect to see Vinder returned. But if Davies is open, Anderson has ideas…
“I actually probably shouldn’t say this, but it doesn’t really matter because it won’t happen, but I had an idea for like a spinoff with Vinder,” the actor said. “I wrote it up and I had quite a detailed idea of what that could be, but they were moving on to different things.”
Anything could happen, especially with Anderson’s profile continuing to rise. A second season of Interview With The Vampire is coming along at AMC, and Doctor Who will return with new episodes later this year. Who’s to say Anderson couldn’t come back aboard as the legendary sci-fi show heads into a new age?
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