Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Kit Harington

Episode Date: April 14, 2019

Even if you haven’t kept up with the HBO show “Game of Thrones” since its debut in 2011, there’s no avoiding the cultural phenomenon based on the books of George R.R. Martin. At the center of it all is the heroic Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist talks with Harington about the show's highly anticipated final season and what it will be like to say goodbye to the series that launched his career, introduced him to his wife and changed his life forever.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along with us and a special welcome this week to all you Game of Thrones geeks. And I use that term absolutely of endearment. John Snow himself. Kit Harrington is my guest this week on the podcast. We got together at the end of a long press tour as he prepared for the launch of season eight on HBO, perhaps the most anticipated, most debated. most talked about, most speculated about series finale of all time. Can I say that? Maybe it is. Six episodes coming up, Game of Thrones on HBO. By the time you've listened to this,

maybe you've already seen episode one. He couldn't say much. HBO has the lips of the actors, the crew, the cast, everybody, so tightly sealed that I had to dig and pry. I got a couple things out of it for you. We had to stop a couple of times. You'll hear Kit ask the publicist if he's allowed to talk about that. That's how seriously they take this series. Man, it's been a decade-long journey for him. The cool thing about Kid Harrington, which I didn't fully realize until I started digging in on his background, is Game of Thrones was his first job on screen. He was a theater actor. He'd been in drama school in London when he won the lead in Warhorse, the play, and the West End. And from there, he got an audition for this new show they were

talking about called Game of Thrones. He got the role when he was 22 years old, shot the pilot at that age, and over the next decade, obviously, Game of Thrones became what Game of Thrones is, and he became who he is based on the strength of this one show. So we talk about what kind of ride that's been for him over a decade, going from anonymous stage actor for the most part to most of the world, wouldn't have known his name, obviously, to now one of the most famous actors in the world. And what comes after this? Where do you go from? from Game of Thrones. He's got an interesting take on that, that he's sort of got the thing right away that most actors work their whole careers to get to, which is big fame and financial

stability. He's got both of those things now, so it's a question of what does he want to do with it? And he'll talk about that. Whether or not you're a Game of Thrones fan, I think you'll love the conversation with a super interesting guy with a great story to tell. Kit Harrington, John Snow himself right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Kit, thank you for doing this, My friend, appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Before we talk about Game of Thrones, I want to ask you about something you just finished a couple of days ago, which was SNL. What was that experience like for you?

First time hosting? Yeah, it was the first thing to say it was an honor. Like, I look back at some of the people who've hosted that, some of the names that have come out of it. The fact I got to work with Lorne Michaels for the week. Amazing. Like, bucket list stuff. But more than that, what was interesting about it, was. was it was a medium, like I think, there's no other like it.

It's live TV, sort of crossed with theater. So there's nothing like it out there. So for trying a new medium, it's median, it's, yeah, I had to do it. What's it like at 11.30 p.m. East Coast time when those doors open, you walk out onto the stage, and it's not rehearsal anymore. It's live. Are there butterflies, or their nerves? What does that feel like? I think it's, I think they get you into such a kind of,

you're so busy for all of the week that, yeah, you're psyched up. But I've done theatre, it's just like the nerves of the theatre, really. Yeah, I, I, I, you do a rehearsal just before, so, so you go from the rehearsal, you have about half an hour, you look at the show again, and you go straight into the actual show and that. So it's just like, like a real adrenaline, rush. All right, so now on to Game of Thrones. Just quickly, if you could, Kit, recap the first seven seasons for me, just 30 seconds or so. Okay, so I'd actually try and do that. Really? There were, there was one king, he died, there were then multiple kings who fought, and then

to disrupt that, the ultimate king himself, the knight king came, and attacked the seven kingdom which forced the rest of those kings and remaining power imbalances to unite and go against him. That was like 15 seconds. That was incredible. Have you done that before? It never made any sense. It made enough sense. Okay, good. What's it like to be sitting here, Kit, at the end of this decade of your life,

as season 8 is about to be launched and the series will end in a matter of weeks. What are you feeling right now? I think it's interesting that we've been asked a lot, what are you feeling? And it's a genuine question and one I think people want to know, like, what do you feel after you finish that many seasons of something or that a part of your life which has been so significant? It's very hard to sum up. Like I don't know really kind of how to sum those feelings up. It's some parts sadness, it's some parts joy, it's some parts relief. You know, I think that it's, I said it in an email to someone recently,

and I think that it's probably sums out the best. It's like, I'm going to be watching it with the widest grin on my face, but the saddest of songs in my heart. It's bittersweet. Yeah, exactly. What was it like if you go back almost, where it gets more than a year and a half when you finish shooting this season to say goodbye at the end. That last cut and you slip off the cloak.

What were those moments like? I think that, you know, obviously what people see on TV is us, you know, the characters they know. Thrones for me was, that was just watching the episodes coming up was just a tiny part of it. It was the family and the people. place of Belfast and and and Iceland and it was the it was the amazing crew it was the parties we had it was the you know that and we've done that now that we said goodbye to

that and I think it's just celebrating it very very it felt like a leavers night school leavers when we when we left very much You're still pretty close to it. I mean, the season hasn't even started yet. Do you think a year from now or five years from now you might stop and go, wow, what just happened over that last decade to my life and my career? I think it, yeah, I think so, but I think also, you know, I think it's been so all-consuming for the last 10 years that I'll need some time just to not think about it. I'll always be reminded of it. I'll always be sort of, you know, as long as I'm an actor, you know, I'll be referenced by Game of Thrones

or reminded of Game of Thrones. And I think it's just, I think, there's so few things I think that any actors are involved in that become like Game of Thrones, that it's a very unique position to be in. But I think it's, I think there's a real, there's an exciting new chapter opening up. By all accounts, season eight was a very busy season for you and for your character.

I guess it took nine months, something like that, to shoot the entire season and you're in an awful lot of it. Was there some element of saying goodbye to characters as they came and went on those last episodes, but you were still there through the entire shoot? Yeah, I think it, yeah, I think that, I mean, I was there a lot. in my in my bits I was I'm always involved in the action a lot of yeah a lot of it which means you're there for maybe more than

people who just have dialogue scenes this this season I seem to kind of just be out you know it was usually it's a six six months and you'd shoot ten episodes over that and you'd be in and out a bit whereas this was nine months and I was out there solidly so it felt like the final season I think when I look back is going to feel almost more memories more things that will stick with me from that season than a good portion of the rest of the show I think if you go

back to the end of season seven to refresh people's memories there was a scene that I expect to make shape season eight between you and your good friend Amelia and we learn afterward that he and denarius are aunt and nephew will that dynamic follow through into season eight will we hear more about that i think you probably will yeah i think that that is one of you know it's it's going to be an important question that gets raised for denarius and for john i think um you have to see how that unfold and whether they tell how it works but I don't know how to discuss anything. Well, I was going to say, I know you're not at liberty to discuss any of it because

if someone from HBO over, they're going to shoot you with a blowdoll. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But one thing they have said you could talk about was the battle for Winterfell, which I think that, out of those nine months we talked about, took three months or something itself. Just an epic, epic setup. Yeah, to the extent I can discuss the Battle of Winterfell, that was the main. most testing thing I think any of us had done crew cast everyone like it was it was 55 night shoots I mean us as actors a lot of us were kind of in and out a bit we had time to recoup the

crew were in there solidly for 55 nights I think that they wanted it to be at night they felt that was very important they knew it was going to be one of the most testing things that they could put a crew through. But they, we started, you know, we rehearsed for weeks beforehand, but they started by saying, this is going to push everyone to their limits. We're going to fall out during this. And we did. There was, there was, you know, you're not meant to work at night for that long.

Right. So it kind of pushed everyone. But when we came out of it the other end, I think we all knew that we probably were sitting on something quite special. And I think it will be. Well, I don't want to get you at any trouble, but are you happy with the way John Snow's story ends? Happy's a weird one.

I am satisfied with how they finished my storyline, the storyline of Thrones. I felt contented by the storytelling. I think it's going to be very hard. I've said this already, but I think it's been very hard to try and live up to everyone's expectations. People will have ways they think it should end.

Other people have ways they think it should end. My general theory about fans and people is they are a big reason why the show is here, but you cannot satisfy everyone. I was satisfied as a fan. Have you told anyone outside the circle of the show how that ends? No. No, and absolutely not, and I wouldn't want to, and they wouldn't want to.

My friends who watch it, and I have one friend who's never seen an episode. Oh, is that right? How's he avoided Game of Thrones? He just doesn't, it's just not his thing. You know, it's not everyone's thing. He tried to watch it for me and was like, dude, I'm just not into it. It's like, fair enough. And I love that he isn't.

And he's probably the only person I'd tell because he would, like, he wouldn't have zero zero understanding of it. And no incentive to tell anyone else because he didn't quite care about it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You've got to have friends like that. Yeah.

Keep you honest. You talked about the fans. There's an element to Game of Thrones because it's so popular of scrutiny. and speculation and people trying to read tea leaves and find conspiracies and predict plot twists. What's it like to be on a show where there's so much focus not just on what happens on the screen, but what people interpret from what they see on the screen

and talk about online and have podcasts about and are so invested in? In honesty, I can't read too much of it. I can't read it at all, in fact, because being in it is enough. I don't mean to sound... No, I get it. I'm gracious.

I love the show I'm in. I'm the biggest fan of it. But I think after shooting it for that many months or that many years and it being your whole life pretty much, you know, like your whole big part of your professional life, reading up on it or kind of paying attention to what... fans think or is too much for me. But I love that people speculate over it.

I think that's made the show what it is. David Nandan always said this is going to be a water cooler show. And I think that the idea of a water cooler show is somewhat died recently with the advent of shows being brought out on mass. Like in one, so they're all available on a platform straight away. Thrones is one of those shows that's still weekly, and I think that's that contributes to what it is, that contributes to the speculation around it and and the theories around it. And that's what makes it still exciting event TV. You were, I think, 21 when you audition for the show, is that right? 21, 22, something like that. You were in Warhorse and apparently a Game of Thrones producer saw you in Warhorse on the West End and asked you for an audition.

Do you remember what that audition was like? It wasn't actually a... It was just an audition that came through. I said I could have... You know, there's always those choices you make in your life, isn't there? That you look back and you go, I remember nearly saying no to the drama school ended up going to and actually going.

I remember being in Warholst and they offered me a continuation of my contract for another year. And it, you know, it was a job as an actor and it was work and it was a successful show. and I thought, and it was, I didn't know whether to say yes or no. And in the end I went, no, I've got to move on and do something else. I've got to keep moving as an actor. So I said no, and then this audition came through.

Wow. The audition, you know, every young actor in the UK for Thrones. And one of the big parts was John Snow, and I remember reading it and going up for it, knowing somewhere inside me that this was in the canon of work I could do, it felt like a part that I was in the right casting bracket for you just get a gut feeling about those roles that you go I know I can do that one and I know I can do something with it into the audition feel good yeah yeah I remember the first audition

even though it was just a tape it wasn't with the producers or director or anyone it was just me and the casting director's assistant you know in a kind of in and out process with all the other actors and had a black eye. I heard about that. Yeah. The result of a fight? It was a result of a fight years ago.

I mean, it's not really important now, but it ended up, you know, maybe possibly helping me get the role as a ruffian sort of bastard warrior, I don't know. Right. Another twist of fate. Yeah. We helped you there.

So you get the part, obviously, there's no way you could have imagined what this show would have become, but you knew HBO was a good place for creative, people. You knew that it was going to be broadcast around the world. Did you have a sense that you were signing up for something special? I think, you know, I've answered this in the past by saying, no, I had no idea. It's really hard to know now. It just genuinely is very difficult to know what I thought it was going to be, but I don't think I expected anything from it. And I think I'm glad I didn't.

I just back then I was an actor a young actor who was in an American TV show a pilot and then a first series

and for that was enough for me that's like being in an HBO series that was like I don't care if this does well I don't care if we get the second season

I'm in I'm in work I'm in an amazing with an amazing channel like so it doesn't I think the worst thing to do as an actor, a young actor or otherwise, is going to anything with the expectation that it will be anything.

You know, I still have to stop myself doing that. I've got in trouble with that before of going into movies thinking, well, this is going to do this. Or this could be an awards thing, or this could be a... And you shouldn't do that, because then you're separating yourself from the actual work of it, I think. To illustrate just how young you were when you got the part of a photograph that you may have seen.

You and some others in the cast visited George R.R. Martin at a book signing. I think it was in Belfast. Do you recognize the gentleman on the right there? Yeah, I've seen that. Isn't that amazing? Well, you see, I've just shaved, so I'm... I look more like him than I usually would. But maybe not.

I don't think you do. My producer sent me this. I said, he's not in the picture. I think you've cropped him out. Yeah, maybe not. So you're 21 there? Yeah, I'm 21, 22. See, we look at Maisie and Sophie, that's amazing. Yeah, when you look back at those faces in that time, what do you think about?

Well, that was a really innocent time compared to what it feels like now. Because that was at a book signing with George R. Martin. And there was already a fan base surrounding the books. And that was weird enough anyway, because we were already meeting fans, and we hadn't even shot the thing. So I guess that photo there is my first experience, my very first experience with any kind of, I guess, notoriety or fame. Right. Because we, people wanted photos with us and to sign this.

And that was very exciting. I remember being really excited by that. I'm probably ringing my mum about it or something. And now, you know, inevitably I sort of take that for granted a bit with all of this or maybe become jaded. about it. So it's interesting and exciting looking back at that. And you really did go from zero to 100 in terms of how quickly you became famous around the world. I mean, this was your first big on-screen job, right?

I think it wasn't quite as quick as it now feels. No? I think that season one did well, but it wasn't, you know, we got nominated for an Emmy, but it wasn't the stratospheric kind of, boom, season one, right, it's global. I think it took about three or four seasons before it started to be aired in lots of other countries. It started to, you know, back then it was Breaking Bad that was the huge. We forget now and we will forget in the future about Thrones a bit. But then it was Breaking Bad that was the big show.

That's right. It was what everyone talked about. And it was only when Breaking Bad sort of finished that Thrones took over that mantle, I think. If I can be so bold as to say that. And John Snow was a different character in those first one, two, three, four, really up until his death at the end of season five. When you look at the arc of John Snow, how do you view it? Who was he at the beginning and how has he changed now as we hit the end? I think one of the unsatisfying things about playing John is he doesn't change much.

One of the satisfying things for the audience is that he doesn't change much. change much. He is your he's the staple he's the solid reliable character the good honest most sort of the closest to a hero in this that this story has which is full of despicable people and villains and and complicated characters John is somewhat reassuring as a character I think But he does go through a journey and I think the most interesting part of that journey is the fact that he is, you know, he keeps trying and he keeps nearly giving up and then being brought back by someone to continue. And he's just that dogged warrior who gets knocked down and then picks himself back up and gets knocked down and picks himself back up. And that's his development really throughout the whole season.

He just wants... He feels like me at the end of this press store. He just wants to go home. He's flattened and wants to go home. To bed. But he keeps going. See, the John Snow lives in you. Even sitting here right now.

Even sitting here. So when you got that season five script for the finale... Yeah. And you got to that last page. you thought, oh, is this the end of my run on the show? Or did you know where it was headed? No, I sort of felt like I felt like, I think with that bit of the story, I knew enough about narrative and how the story should work

to kind of know that you can't kill a character at that point, like John Snow, that he was probably, only was in the dark for about. two weeks and then David and Dan told me but I think I knew I was like I feel like it would be bad storytelling to finish him like this and to finish him at the end of a season in such a way as a cliffhanger right you know if you're going to kill John Snow you kill him in the ninth episode and then have a 10th as a kind of wrapping up right that story right you don't kill him in the end of the 10th episode as a cliffhanger for the next season right

you know, narratively was a bit of a tell. I guess it was a question of how they were going to bring you back. It was the only question in your mind. Yeah. I kind of, I remember there were already rumors about Melisandra and all of that. But what I was surprised about with that was how well, I think, HBO, David and Dan, and all of us really sold it. I think that it was really well marketed.

It was really well. written by David and Dan, it was well sold. The fact that people had this isy, isn't he, question. I think it was well dealt with. So how would you say you've handled this part of it, the fame of being on magazine covers and people chasing you with cameras and the fact that this was your first big job

and it was the job that's made you famous around the world and that you'll be remembered for forever. Was it scary at first? Was it odd? What was it like to be someone who was recognized everywhere he went? I think I've dealt with it well at times and really badly at others. I think the bits I'm proud of is I think there's, I think there's a part of me that stayed very much me as not changed. when it's very easy to, I think,

when you're in the eye of a storm like Thrones. It's not the most comfortable place for me. I'm not going to lie. Weirdly, I'm not great. I found out through Thrones. I'm not great with certain amounts or types of attention. It's an odd thing. I don't, you know, there's so few people that have gone through

something like Thrones, the specific kind of journey of Thrones, that you have to be really close with those people who know about it, which is Amelia and Sophie and Maisie and my wife. And, you know, Thrones is a specific type of kind of fan base and fans and sort of storm that surrounds it, that you kind of, only those people who witnessed it as well from the inside sort of are worth getting advice.

Sure. There are the only people who could understand what you're going through. Yeah. Right. But then, you know, I don't know. It's been a crazy old journey. Like really an amazing one

and one that I'm so privileged to have had. Yeah. And you've said for all the great things that came out of this show, by far the best is that you met your wife on this show. I mean, what more could I ask? That's it. And not everyone meets his wife,

chasing her down at snowy mountainside and ending up with a knife to her throat and a scene. That's quite an introduction. Yeah. Yeah. But she helps guide you through this? Yeah, I mean, we do. I think we also felt that we're going to restate.

start our life a bit once Thrones finishes. Because it happens that we met in the show. And we've always tried not to be defined by that a bit. It's just a job we met on. And I think once the show finishes, we get to kind of break free of it a bit and just be us, which is a really nice feeling. And Thrones, I've said this before, but it's

It's given me possibly my future family. It's given me my wife. It's given me friends for life. It's given me the most incredible memories. It's given me something I can put on the bookshelf, which is a story I'm so proud of and a character I love, I will love more than any other character I'll ever play. And I don't really, there isn't any way,

of saying thank you to it enough. There never will be. And I think that comes back to the question about how do you feel now it's finishing. Well, there aren't words to describe how I feel about it. That's beautiful. It is. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast.

Stick around to hear more from Kit Harrington, including what he's got planned after Game of Thrones. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast, more now of my conversation with Game of Thrones star, Kit Harrington. So not to rush you to your next job yet, but have you begun to give thought about what's next for you post Game of Thrones? I have, yeah. I feel like Thrones has given me an opportunity to go and try lots of different stuff and be brave

and do some really quirky things and take jobs which might be utter failures. I don't know. I feel like I did a play recently. I did play called True West on the West End. And it really reminded me of my love for theatre. So I fully intend to be doing more of that. And hopefully something that's quite far from John Snow and fantasy, like, weirder roles than how else to put it?

Are there people coming to you, though, predictably and giving you some approximation of John Snow? Why don't you be a hero who wears a cloak and has a sword? Cleverer than that. I think they've realized that I'm not going to take it. You know, like that why would I want to go and play another version of John Snow? And even like, you know, heroic roles I really have to look at at the moment because, you know, I don't know about heroic roles at the moment. I've done one for so long and I feel, I don't know what more I can give that bracket of character. Right. So I'd like to, that's why I say weird, quirky, a stranger.

Also, there's something I've just shaved and I look so different and I feel so different with it. I'm like, just try and find a whole new different character or a person you are within this. Although Rose said on SNL, she'd like the beard back as soon as possible. She keeps saying how she likes how I look, but with a strange look in her eye. So I'm like, okay, maybe I'll grow up back. I've got to ask two questions for your fans, number one. The cloak. Is it the same one through eight?

seasons? No. No. There were two cloaks. Okay. There was the cloak at the night's watch, which was the black Knights Watch cloak. Right. And then he got given this sort of very much stark, Ned Stark tight cloak. Right. I think the one from the Knights Watch got fleas, so they had to change up. I imagine it's a little gamey after a decade. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you get to take that home by any chance? Just like you've earned it. No, no, no, no. They, They laid claim to all those props and costumes as soon as we left that. It'll go to a museum somewhere. I'll get it one day.

You'll get it. I'll get it. Next question is, in these wintery, freezing cold now at night battles like Winterfell, John never wears a hat. And we worry about his health. He's going to catch a cold out there. Has he ever considered wearing a hat in battle? No, his hair is too important.

That is true. Yeah. It's too important to, you know, I feel like Westrus wouldn't work if he didn't get to show his bar in it on. I remember asking for a hat once. And he said absolutely not. I was like, can I not just wear a hat? We're in minus 40. And they were like, hmm, got a kind of brand now that we need to look after.

Leaning into the hair brand. Yeah. Your background growing up, when did you catch the actor? What was it that you saw or you heard that made you say, that might be something I could do, not just for fun, but for a living someday? I was taken to the theater a lot as a kid by my mom and dad, both theater lovers, but mom specifically was a playwright.

So I think that it was always there in the background of my childhood. And then I saw a production of Waiting for Godot, specifically by the English touring company and my local theater in Wollard. in Worcestershire and I remember being so amazed by what those actors did with just two men on stage for the majority and I found it was so funny it was so moving that play that I am I think somewhere then at the age of 13 I was I want to do that

and then and then I think it became the only thing I was really that interested in was performance so there was never a chance you'd be anything other than an actor as you look back on it I think I was I think and this is my advice to anyone wanting to be an actor I think I was sensible enough to be desperately trying to find any other option mm-hmm I think I wanted to be a journalist or something I was like there's got to be another option of career here that means I won't end up destitute and that means I'm just that it's so obviously hard to succeed in yes

And after realizing that this was the only thing that I loved and wanted to do, that's when I wanted to do it. And luckily for me, it allowed me to. You have to test yourself a little to see if you've got the hunger. Yeah, try and find anything else to do. That's good advice. Unless it's the only thing you really want to do. Great.

Thank you so much. Yeah. That's great. Thanks, Willie. My thanks to Kit for that conversation. As I'm sure you all know by now, you can watch the eighth and final season of Game of Fame. Thrones on HBO Sundays at 9 o'clock Eastern. And my thanks as always to you for checking out the Sunday Sit Down podcast. To hear more of the full-length conversations with all of my guests,

make sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sitdown podcast.