Recently, Game of Thrones star Kristian Nairn (Hodor) released an autobiography called Beyond the Throne: Epic Journeys, Enduring Friendships, and Surprising Tales, which you can check out here. He includes lots of thoughts about Game of Thrones in there, but also plenty about his personal life, including when he kicked a drug habit by playing World of Warcraft.
It started when Nairn fell for someone who had a pretty bad habit which he soon picked up; a working DJ, Nairn was using amphetamines and cocaine to endure all-night sets, ecstasy at the club, and codeine to come down from other drugs, in addition to drinking plenty of alcohol. “I’m snorting so much coke that when I lift my head off the pillow, usually past midday, it’s still encrusted into the cotton like cardboard,” he wrote in his book.
Realizing the drug use was having a detrimental effect on his life, he detoxed by staying in a bungalo at the foot of the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland and playing World of Warcraft "from dawn till dusk." Video games can be an addition too, but as Nairn told Polygon, gaming like this helped him get over something way more damaging. "I look at the damage-results scale from addictions, a whole different scale ," he said. "Although I know people have definitely lost friends and partners over Warcraft. I’ve definitely receded from the world with it. But I needed to do that at the time. I needed to recede a bit, and that’s how I used it. I’m in a much healthier place now — and I actually think the evolution of the game allows you to play it and stay in a healthier place now, because you can do things faster."
Nairn’s book gets specific about his tastes in World of Warcraft roles: why he always chooses non-human characters (“who the hell wants to plug in and look like an accountant?”) and DPS types (because he secretly wants to “hit out at the world”), and addresses what he gets out of the game, from dopamine rushes to friends around the world.
Nairn sounds like a genuinely passionate gamer, especially when it comes to World of Warcraft. Playing it on the road during his tours is a way to keep in touch with friends. "I love my job, don’t get me wrong, but it does get lonely. And Warcraft helps with that, you know? Because not only do I play the game, but my friends are there, I can talk to them. You go on the Discord, and all of a sudden you’re home."
For the record, he doesn't openly share that's he's Hodor from Game of Thrones, at least not any more. "I’m selective — only my friends know who I am," Nairn said. "I did, initially, on the American servers, publicize who I was. And it got a bit mad. It was just a wall of purple text, people asking me questions. Which is fine, but Warcraft is an escape for me. I’ve always tried to keep it that way. So I’m very careful in the game. But also, you know, I’m not Brad Pitt, I’m not Tom Cruise."
Also for the record, Nairn shares that he likes to play as non-human characters (“who the hell wants to plug in and look like an accountant?”) he likes to be a class that does a lot of attacking as opposed to support or healing (because he secretly wants to “hit out at the world”), his favorite character is undead leader Sylvanas Windrunner (Patty Mattson, who voices who voices Sylvanas, is on his answering machine) and loves the lore of the game. "s someone who’s worked with scripts, I know how hard it is to retcon, how hard it is to bring stories together when you’re constantly expanding. But some of those characters, they’re as well-written as Tolkien characters. That might come back to bite me, that statement, but I think they’re really well-written, and that’s what I love most about it."
Nairn has always come off as very genuine in his nerdy interests, which we can appreciate. It doesn't look like he has any roles coming up, but you can always revisit him as Hodor on Game of Thrones, or as pirate Wee John Feeney on the canceled-too-soon HBO dramady Our Flag Means Death.
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