Celebrity Friday: Kit Harrington (Jon Snow on Games of Thrones)

Kit Harrington is the name of the British actor who plays the pivotal role of Jon Snow in the HBO series, Games of Thrones, a televised adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.


Season 2 of the series is currently airing, based on the event which occur mostly in the second book, A Clash of Kings. In this book, Jon Snow becomes a central character to the events which are occurring "north of the Wall" where Winter isn't coming, it never left. The good news is that we will be seeing a lot more of Kit (as Jon Snow) because HBO has just announced it has renewed the show for a third season (which will apparently be based on the first half of A Storm of Swords).

The actor, 25, gave an interview to The Daily Beast about his role on the show:

How surprised are you about the audience reaction to the show?

I knew HBO would put out a good show. I was very excited by the story anyway because I thought it was so original. But I didn’t expect the viewership. I think someone told me that that’s the third– most watched HBO series ever, after The Sopranos and True Blood. That’s incredible for me thinking about that and being a part of The Wire and Deadwood and Rome and all of those great HBO series. Having watched all of those, it’s really, really amazing.

I notice more women coming up and saying how much they love the show. It’s not just for the people who like that genre. People are picking up the books who’ve never read fantasy before because they’ve seen this show. That’s amazing. I think it’s because it’s character-based drama. It’s like any other HBO show; it just happens to be set in a medieval world. That’s the thing that sets it apart from lots of fantasy.

You spent part of Season 2 shooting on a glacier in Iceland. Does on-location shooting help instill a sense of reality?

Absolutely. The whole experience of shooting in Iceland was amazing for me. It was all very intensive. I’m not a method actor, but there is something to be said for staying in a place in which Jon is for four weeks. Iceland is exactly like the place where Jon finds himself, beyond the Wall. That landscape is so alien and so perfect for what we wanted to capture.

The picture above is from a photo shoot for Men's Journal. The one quibble I have had with the HBO series is that they made the male characters a lot more attractive than I had pictured them in my mind when I read the books (particularly the actors playing Jon Snow, Brandon Stark, Theon Greyjoy and Tyrion Lannister). Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Hat/tip to TowleRoad