While the ending of Game of Thrones is certainly going to be an emotional experience for the fans who have grown to love these iconic characters during the last eight years, it’s also quite a difficult goodbye for the actors who play them, too.
During an appearance The Graham Norton Show (the British version of Jimmy Fallon except all the guests appear at once and they sometimes get drunk), Harrington revealed that he broke down in tears following a simple interaction with a fan after he finished filming the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones.
After explaining that he had this whole scenario mapped out in his head where he’d handle his first post-Thrones interaction in a very slick and suave manner, Harington revealed that the real-world scenario played out much differently.
“I had really waited to say the words ‘not anymore’, like in a really stoic, kind of cool way,” Harington said while discussing how he planned on reacting the next time someone asked him if “he was Jon Snow.”
“What really happened,” Harrington continued, “was that I left set and I was very emotional, and this poor girl came up to me at the airport and went ‘are you Jon Snow?’ and I went ‘not anymore'” before he begins to fake cry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC-GdmsDvEk
So while Jon Snow may be all doom-and-gloom on Game of Thrones, its good to know that the actor that plays him feels regular emotions like the rest of us, as saying goodbye to a character you spend eight long years with is certainly no easy thing.
Especially when that character changed your life by introducing you to your wife and making you an internationally-known, highly paid actor. Who wouldn’t get emotional?
The eighth and final season of HBO’s Emmy Award-winning fantasy drama ‘Game of Thrones’ premiered on Sunday, April 14.
