Live from GOT Fan Con with Kit Harington
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We honestly had the greatest group of people who were just funny. They're funny people in our cast and we had a laugh. And I think that that for me is what Thrones will be. Not the big premieres, not the talk shows, not the fight scenes or the big huge sets. For me, Thrones will always be sitting in a damp tent with Sansa, Davos Seaworth and someone else just chatting shit.

in a fucking heavy, wet costume, just laughing my tits off. Yeah. Such a lovely human. Really wonderful, generous answers. Yeah. From Mr. Kit Harington. Who we're going to talk to on today's show. That's right. We, in his words, we chatted shit. Yeah, we're going to chat some shit, y'all.

Welcome to the official Game of Thrones podcast, House of the Dragon. I'm Jason Concepcion, host of the podcast X-Ray Vision from Crooked Media. And I'm Greta Johnson, host of WBEZ's Nerd App podcast. And this is a Game of Thrones podcast for everyone, whether you're an OG Thrones watcher or you just started your journey with the HBO original series, House of the Dragon. And this episode is a very special episode because not only...

Is this our final episode of our first season run? The first season of the official Game of Thrones podcast. But later in this episode, you're going to hear Greta and I interview a fella named Kit Harington. Ever heard of him? Why am I not getting sick of that? I think it's hilarious every time. I hate it.

And of course, Jason, as you remember, not only are we going to hear our conversation with Kit, but also members of the audience from the Thrones Convention got to ask questions too. So we're going to hear those as well. And I got to say, man, y'all really brought it with the questions. We had a wonderful audience at FanCon. The questions were fantastic.

Before we get to the interviews, Jason, I would love for you to sort of like run through FanCon from the fan perspective. I feel like you actually saw a lot more than I did. I did. I mean, I love a convention in general, but it was really wonderful because you could sense from the crowd how much connecting with fans

the various people who were there, Alfie Allen, Kit, Patty Considine, et cetera. You could see how much it meant to connect with them, whether it's hearing them at the panels, getting to ask a question, getting a picture taken with them. You could sense that excitement. You could sense it in the quavering voices of people getting to ask the questions, you know, and

And it was really wonderful. You know, this is obviously is a story and a show that is extremely popular, is connected with a lot of people, including myself. Like there were a bunch of times where I was just reflecting on, holy shit, how crazy is this that I'm here? Right? Oh my God. Yeah, this is so wild. Yeah. Holy shit. Alfie Allen and Jack Gleeson are just like chatting shit eight feet away from me.

It was crazy. They were all so lovely, too. I mean, they were such lovely people. Every single human there was just really wonderful. And yeah, Jason, you and I got a picture on the Iron Throne. I look completely ridiculous. There was like this giant dragon head that people could take pictures with. There were auctions with memorabilia. You mentioned the meet and greets. Like, it really seemed like...

especially for the super fans, there was just like something for everybody there, you know? Yeah. There's a tremendous energy, the creativity and the costumes, you know, there's a fellow who I met at previous Game of Thrones conventions who cosplays as Jon and who's, who is, you know, on social media, it goes as Khan Snow.

And he got to ask John a question. John. He got to ask kid a question and get that recognition from kid. It was, I mean, like all, it went all around was really wonderful. Yeah. I'm glad to hear you keep still accidentally calling him John too. I keep doing that with everybody. I'm like, yeah, Theon was great. Joffrey was wonderful. So Joffrey, sweet guy, actually. Super nice. Really smart man. We had a good chat about books. Soft spoken. It was wonderful. Yeah.

We bonded over the Neapolitan quartet. Bye. Jason, I think you're totally right. This was like absolutely a highlight, both like personally and professionally. And I also got to say it was extra cool because you and I got to meet each other in real life for the first time. What a wild thing. Does this happen to you when you meet people in the COVID era, post COVID era, whatever era, the Zoom era that we're in? I don't.

It barely registers. I feel I felt as if we had met. Yeah. When that was brought up to me, I was like, oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah, totally. Well, I mean, especially like given how many hours you and I have put in together over the last like four or five months. It's like, yeah, no, we're best friends. Obviously. Obviously. Yeah.

It was really great. And then, so, fun fact about the official Game of Thrones convention. Originally, we were supposed to leapfrog panels. Like, I would do one, then you would do one, then I would do one. And then we'd kind of get together like the Avengers to do like the bigger panels. Yeah. But then we did, after day one, we did that end panel at the end of the day together and we're like, oh yeah, why don't we just do this? That's way better. This is actually better. Yeah.

Yeah, it worked out really well. It was less downtime, but it was just like so much easier and so much more fun. It was so much easier. Though I will say, Jason, is now the point where we mentioned that you, we did all the panels together from then on, except for that one panel with Patty Considine, where you disappeared. Except for Patty Considine.

Well, first of all... There was an empty chair on the stage. I'll tell this story and thank you for not being angry about it. The funny thing is, on my Instagram, you can see the picture I took in the green room moments before falling asleep. So...

We were, you know, this is day three. And I think we were both kind of toasted. Oh, we were both super exhausted. You know, a little singed around the edges by this time. Yeah. This is the post-lunch break, right? So we had done a panel after lunch. And now we had about a 15-minute break before Patty Considine. But actually a little more because you were introing a video. Yeah. So I had like five minutes. Right. So there was like another. So really it was like 20 minutes. So I figured, OK, I'll go. I'll go to the green room.

I go to the green room, open the door, and there is Christian Nairn, Alfie Allen, Esme Bianco. Hodor, Theon. Hodor, yeah. Christopher Hivieu. Like all the talent. And there are various like reps and stuff. Friends at this point, I think, various people had showed up. Yeah. Had taken all of the seats, available seats at the tables. Okay, fine. So I go to, you know, the...

back of the room and just kind of lay down on the ground, which people had been doing. Which was something I did during lunch. You did not a weird thing to do. Not in any kind of a hidden way. Like there was no... You get back there and there's... It's not like behind a curtain or something. It's not behind a curtain. You're just like out in the open. There's no tables around. You're just laying on the ground. So I go back there, I lay on the ground and I fall asleep. And I guess...

As we neared panel time, people were coming to the green room looking for me, but nobody took two steps into the room. They just kind of like opened the door and peeked in and didn't see me sitting at a table. And we're like, oh, shit, Jason's gone rogue. That was the exact phrase they kept using with me. Jason's gone rogue. And I come to someone standing over me being like, oh, my God, here you are.

And I said, oh, the panel. Oh, no. And they were like, yeah, it's going on right now. And I can hear the music. I can hear, like, the intro music, the Patty Kudzendine intro music blasting. And they were like, it's our fault. It's our fault. We looked in here four times, but nobody saw you. And, uh...

And so that's how I missed the panel. They were like, do you want to just run down there and go out? I was like, no, that would be super weird. That would be super weird. I was half wondering if you were going to do that. No, that's super weird. And I didn't. I had the utmost confidence that you were going to absolutely nail it. And thank you for not being pissed about it. But that is how I...

I miss the Patty Constantine panel, which I really wanted to be a part of, but which you handled wonderfully. I listened to it. Thank you. Thank you. It was a well-deserved nap. And next time I'm just going to cash that in myself. I just want you to know. You deserve that nap on day three of the con.

It was super fun, though. It was very, very fun. It was super fun. And Jason, you and I, we also did some, in addition to the panels we shared, we also did some like kind of diary taping while we were there, which was fun also to record in person. So this is the chat we had kind of at the midway point of the con. Enjoy. Enjoy.

Can we just take a minute? Because this is the first time that you and I are like actually recording something for this show in the same room. I know, it's crazy. The coin has not even dropped until you mentioned it. I did not realize that. It's kind of weird, right? It is kind of weird. It just shows you how space has collapsed in the last three or four years.

Yeah, it's all a flat circle. It's all good. How's your convention been? Oh my God, it's been so much fun. So yeah, we're like halfway through. It is Saturday as we record this. And it has been very busy and just very fun. I think the most exciting and interesting part for me is just to hear how much insight these actors can bring to characters that maybe don't even get that much screen time, right? Like I think about the panel you and I both did with Matthew Needham this afternoon where

who plays Laris. And like, he has thought so intricately about that character and his weird lurking and his motivations. And it was just super interesting. His explanation of the scene between Laris and Allison, the infamous foot scene. Which we've discussed. Yeah, which we've discussed. He,

laid that out for the audience in a way that was really understandable. Yes, and I just want to give a quick warning to our listeners that this clip from our conversation with Matthew does discuss assault in different forms and the trauma that's experienced by victims of assault. I don't think it's like a foot fetish, like we understand it in 22. I think it's weirder than that. I don't think he's like... It's not my thing personally, but it's quite a mundane...

to me, thing. Whereas I think for someone who's had this debilitating disability all his life, it's just a bit neat for someone with a club foot to be turned on by feet. It's the fact that he can make her do it. And this is a very disturbed person with a lot of trauma. And when we did it and there was stuff that was cut which might have clarified it a bit more, but it's about

making her feel as much shame as she does for that part of her body as he does for his. Because he can like cut out tongues and he can cut out eyes and he sort of likes that. I think he likes making people incomplete. Can't do that with her. He can though associate that part of her body with a trauma so that long after he's gone, she's got this sort of sick feeling.

about it that's connected to that. 'Cause I think that's the thing about assault like that, isn't it? It makes the victim's body the scene of the crime.

It's actually super devious. Yeah, it's evil. And I thought that was just a really fascinating answer and an insight into like how, as you say, how deeply they have thought about like all the things that they're acting out and doing, all the ways they build their characters. That was really interesting. Yeah. So yesterday you and I kind of split up some panels. What was one of the favorite conversations you had? Oh, gosh. Yeah.

Tom Glyn Carney plays Egon the Elder. Long may he reign. He was so charming and turns out a animal lover. He had some really fun insights into, you know, what it's like to audition for something like this. How the length of the wig kind of came to be. It was something he talked about when we interviewed him along with Jack Gleeson for the Young Kings panel on Saturday morning.

That was a real process. When I first put it on, it was down here. Wow. Yeah, I looked like the Witcher or something like that. And then all the producers came in and we all had this discussion about who Egon is and how he would have his hair. And I was pushing the idea that he was sort of this libertine who doesn't wash very often. He's greasy. He's vulgar. He doesn't really care how he looks.

And you know, everyone was on board with that idea. So we just kept going shorter and shorter and shorter, but very incrementally, like an inch at a time because you can't make a wig longer. So it's coming off, coming off, coming off. And it got to about here and we thought, okay, that's probably enough. So yeah, Ewan who plays Emmond has to, you know, have the big long wig and he sits on it when he sits down. He pulls his head back. So that's not ideal. I avoid that. What about you?

I got to talk to Daniel Portman. Yes, sex god, Padraic Payne. Padraic Payne. Yes. He was great, super charming. A lot of really intense questions were directed at him about his sex god status. Believe it or not. I know you're surprised to hear that. He sort of broke some news, actually, because apparently all this time he's been lying about the fact that he had read the books. I love it. Did you read the books once you were cast?

I used to lie about this. Okay, great. Great. I'm glad we're really getting down to it this afternoon. I used to lie. I used to say, you know, I did. And then there wasn't. Yeah. No, I didn't. I didn't. And you feel good about that? Still haven't. Do you have you like processed the shame you used to have that I assume was what prompted you to lie initially? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I was young. I was a people pleaser. Now, you know, I'm jaded. And yeah, that's, you know, you live and you learn. I'm glad he's finally like come to terms with that. He wasn't lying. He was performing. That's very gracious. Okay.

I found Jack Gleeson. Joffrey. Joffrey. Guess what? Newsflash, folks. Not an evil man. So lovely. Just like a really wonderful, warm guy. Super nice. Very creative and, like everybody else, thoughtful about his own process. Yeah. And with a really interesting perspective now. What is it? Like almost 10 years, like nine years removed from his exit from Game of Thrones. There is, oh my God. I thought one of the real...

and super fun moments was a fan asked Tom and Jack if they, as their characters, Egg on the Elder and King Joffrey Baratheon, 300 years before Joffrey Baratheon was born, if they could have a discussion about Joffrey having to work through his feelings about being a product of incest. It was so good. And it was so funny. Yeah.

Sound speed rolling. I can tell you've been struggling. You've not been yourself recently. Yeah, it's just the whole thing that I'm a product of incest, you know. Yeah, that sucks. Yeah. Have you had a word with mum and dad? Yeah, I mean, they just keep making out in front of me. Hey, do you want to go get beer? Yeah, let's just get a beer. Cool. I think we got it.

Yeah, those two, turns out, did not know each other at all until they, like, met on the first day of the convention. And I just am so excited for, like, the weird buddy cop spinoff that's going to happen with them. Oh, there was a really... The panel we had with Matthew Needham, who plays Laris, there was a really interesting moment. So there's a very vibrant fan theory out there that...

Laris is a warg or has some sort of magical abilities akin to brands and so many of those conversations that he has taking place in front of the Weirwood. And he was asked about it, Matthew was, and didn't really shoot it down.

There are a lot of pivotal conversations that seem to be taking place in front of the weirwood tree. I was wondering if you are aware of any connection that Laris might have between that sort of magical aspect of the story with like green seeing and warging and all of the fun, deep, deep things.

Yeah, I can't comment. I like that there's a sort of mystery element to him. I really like that this character who is notoriously hard to pin down is either like this sort of supernatural being or just a perverted creep. I think it's somewhere in between is right. But I know what you mean.

I got to talk to Christopher Hiview yesterday. Wonderful. Who is Tormund Giantsbane. Your countryman. My countryman. Yeah, my fellow wildling. He is such a delight. And it was fun, too, because you could tell people just love him. I mean, the fact... He's got a twinkle in his eye. Yes, well, he does. He's got those eyes. He always looks like that. He winked at me. He winked at me.

I came in the room and he was there, the green room. He just winked at me. I was like, who does that? It's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah, he had a number of really great things to say about his character.

You got to play such a fun role. It seemed like that had to be so much fun to get to play that character in the midst of so much seriousness. Yes. If you put some glitter into a pool of blood...

The glitter looks even better. Wow, so you're the glitter in the blood. That's amazing. No, no, it's true. It's like whatever kind of small hint of light there was in the show, the fans grabbed on and liked it. So it was nice to be the glitter. Okay, dude. Love it.

I loved it. I thought our panel with co-shown in Ryan Condal this morning, Saturday morning, was really, really cool, indicative of how much he gets, not just like story and the story in particular, but the relationship that the fans have with the story. We ran a deleted scene. World debut was at this convention, really cool moment for the fans. And then he was very particular about explaining how

there are deleted scenes like the one we saw that exist in canon even though it didn't you know it happened even though it wasn't in the show and then there are other ones that or in the books yeah or in the books right which is really interesting really interesting and very again like so detail oriented and you know and

of how much he understands his fan culture. And then there are other deleted scenes that they're gone now. They're not canon. They never happened, which was a really interesting explanation. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I thought so, too. I thought he was great. Everyone, I think, has just, like, really brought... It's been fun. ...a lot. And we haven't done... Let's see. So we've talked to a couple House of the Dragon folks, but we haven't done, like, a panel with a bunch of them yet, so we're gonna do that. Not yet. We're gonna talk to Kit Harington, also known as Jon Snow. Ever heard of him. Yeah.

Kit who? Kit who? It's been very fun. I think it will continue to be very fun. Yeah. Actors, it turns out, are very, very charming people. Yeah. Well, cool. Should we check in after the rest of it? Let's do that. Okay. All right. So it is now a few days after the con. We've managed to catch our breath, get some rest and relaxation. And now let's reflect on our experiences. How was your convention, Greta? Yeah.

Oh, my God, it was great. It was just wonderful. I don't think I have ever done 15 events over three days, though. I mean, like it was wild to actually count them up. So I'm still kind of recovering from that, I think. But it was so much fun. I mean, what a great room. What a great crowd.

Everyone was just so interesting and fun. And it was just great. It was just a really good time. What did you think? So I think if I had a highlight for the back half of the convention, it would be the first panel we did with Patty.

So it was Patty Considine, Steve Toussaint, a.k.a. Corliss Valerian, and Alfie Allen, a.k.a. Theon Greyjoy. That was a good one. And it was really the first time. I don't know what kind of events and things that Patty has been doing since the series aired.

but, you know, the last time I was in a room with him, it was San Diego Comic-Con, and no one had seen the show yet. Right. And to watch him react in real time to the kind of, like, outpouring of love for his performance and his character was super, super cool. Yeah. Like, the crowd just exploded at any mention of any of the scenes from his iconic performance. That panel that you were talking about, especially with Patty and Alfie and Steve, was really interesting because...

In some ways, the experiences that the Game of Thrones cast members and House of the Dragon cast members had are super similar, right? They're both taking on this, you know... They're both a part of this super successful franchise, but...

It's so interesting also to contrast the different experiences they had in terms of, you know, Alfie coming on and having no idea that Game of Thrones was going to become what it did. And then similarly for Steve and Patty to like take on this big brand, but like have no idea how the show was going to do and then be so thrilled to see the audience reaction. I thought that was super interesting. Yeah, that was really, really wonderful. And as Patty...

talked about in the panel that we did with him. In the books...

You know, Viserys is a little bit of a nothing burger. He's kind of a boring guy. Yeah. And Patty just infuses him, obviously, with so much vitality and pathos. Obviously, it resonated with a lot of people. Steve was wonderful as well. Very funny. I remember when someone waited in that long, long line to ask questions just to say, Steve, I love your jacket. Just, I just...

Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, you're glistening. That jacket was amazing. That was the first thing I said to him. It was like a sparkly, like, crocodile bomber. Yeah, I was going to say it was sort of like snakeskin-esque. Like, it was super badass, whatever was happening. Some very high-quality bomber jacket.

That's true. That's true. Over the course of this convention, Matthew, who played Laris the clubfoot, had a kind of classic like nylon navy bomber. And then you had Kit, who had like this what appeared to be a vintage suede bomber. That was super cool. Like it cost more than my monthly rent. Let's not think about it too hard. Yeah.

That panel also had some really great audience questions. One of my favorites was about which house, other than their own character's house, they would want to be a part of. And all the actors chose really fun ones. Alfie chose to go completely out of the world of Westeros, which I completely respect. And Steve's answer was also great and, you know, gave a nod to one of our favorite families from Game of Thrones.

If you guys had to choose a house other than your guys' own from either season or whatnot to choose to be from, what house would you be from and why? Hufflepuff. The Lannisters for me, definitely. For me, I guess from Game of Thrones, I guess I quite like the Starks. I quite like, well, I like Sean Bean. I like that northern grit.

What house would you be, Jason? Gosh, I would be probably the Tyrells because it's like the south of France down there in the reach. I don't want that bullshit weather. I'm not going to fucking go up to the north. That shit. I'm not doing bullshit weather. That's so very L.A. of you. Yeah. What would you be? Oh, I'm free folk, obviously.

I'm not affiliated with any of that bullshit. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah, Oregon and shit. Yeah, man. We're north of the wall for sure. Hell yeah. Shouts to Alfie for picking up.

picking a non-canon story that is also WB Discovery IP. See that? I also identify as Hufflepuff, so, you know. Nice. Hardworking folk, those Hufflepuff. But in a chill way. They don't need the glitz and the glamour and the praise that these other houses need. They're just out there plugging away. Loyal friends. Or just super high all the time. Yeah.

That's a lot of stoners in Hufflepuff. Yeah. In early official Game of Thrones podcast news, we discovered what Paddy Constantine stole from set at this panel, which was fantastic. A lot of theories were out there. Was it a sword? Was it a dagger? Was it a little...

Piece of jewelry was, you know. I was guessing a dagger, a knife of some sort. Yeah, he said he wanted that, but he couldn't get it. And what he revealed it to be was a little dragon piece from King Viserys's old Valyria model. Miniature model. His little miniature model that he bonded with his teen bride over. Alicent, come look at this. We also did a big group panel with a bunch of Thrones folks. We had...

Christian, who's Hodor, Esme, who's Roz, Christopher, who's Tormund, and then Daniel, who's Podrick Payne. And one of the audience questions was about the grossest thing they had to eat on set, and Daniel had the best possible answer. For me, on the show, there was a scene when I had to eat a bunch of pies that Hot Pie made...

And they were filled with mushrooms. It was just mushrooms in a mushroom gravy. And I still, to this day, can't eat mushrooms anymore. Because over the two days that we shot the scene, I think I ate something like 17 or 18 pies. And they managed to shoot the scene so that I was in every single setup. And I was young and inexperienced and Gwendolyn...

Realized that you know you take one mouthful at the start of the scene and then you play with your food for the rest of the scene and I thought fuck it I'm quite hungry anyway and set a really dangerous precedent and then had to stuff my face with whole mushrooms for two days. So now mushrooms make me want to vomit everywhere.

Mushroom gravy. Mushroom gravy. You know, so for those of you not aware of how TV production works, what he means by setups is when they're shooting a scene, you know, they'll get the kind of medium angle and then they'll shoot it again with the close up on the character speaking. And then they'll shoot it again with the character who is listening to the person speaking in a close up and shoot just various angles and stuff.

For every single one of those shots for two days, he was just locked in on mowing down on mushroom pie. It's amazing. I can't stop thinking about that, actually. I think it's hilarious. Oh, gosh. I'd be like, can we just, can I just do this over and not, like, I made a mistake. Can we please start from the beginning? Yeah.

I'm sorry, everyone. I really apologize. I made a huge mistake. This was an error on my part. But can we do something about it? Like we CG a dragon into this show. Can we please fix this? I cannot eat another mushroom. How wonderful was it to talk to one of my favorite electronic music DJs,

the wonderful Christian Nairn who played Hodor in Game of Thrones. Yeah, he was really great. We talked to him a couple times when I was on the big Game of Thrones panel and right out the gate, he was just like hilarious.

How has life in general changed for you guys after the show ended? It just changed everything. It really has. There is that horrible gaping void in front of you that Daniel spoke of so candidly. But I think I've been very fortunate. It's changed my life in so many ways. It opened up so many doors. And, oh, God. LAUGHTER Touché. CHEERING

Fuck doors. Anyway, yeah, doors. Doors and that. Lots of doors. I fully expected that when the long night episode happened, we would maybe see a Hodor as a white. Was that something that was ever talked about? Was it something you would have been interested in or thought would have been a cool scene? I'm just curious about that.

There was a rumor that they were going to bring two characters back for that episode. And Hodor was one of them. I would have loved to have done it. I mean, I'd love to come back as a zombie. I mean, could you tell the difference? I don't know. Although I kind of like the ambiguity of his death. He didn't actually get to see him die. I think he did die. There's always that little hope I have that he's wandering around the forest, like eating bears, you know,

You know, he's like a wild man of the forest. Can he speak now? Because the whole temporal thing, the whole mind thing is gone. Because obviously that's been broken now. Maybe he's teaching at a university somewhere. You know, I don't know. What kind of teacher do you think he would be? Oh, probably like metaphysics or something like that. I mean, he has time traveled. I think he has some very intimate experience with

with physics and time. I like it. And of course, all of those panels and conversations led up to the big finale of The Weeknd, which was a conversation with the Kit Harington, also known as Jon freaking Snow. We are super excited because you are about to listen to pretty much the full version of that panel, including the truly stellar audience questions for Kit. Have you ever heard of him? No.

Kit, hello. Hi. This is also our chance to say welcome to the official Game of Thrones podcast. Nice to see you guys. It's been a minute. Yeah, what's it like to be back? Yeah, I've been reflecting a bit today on talking about Game of Thrones because it's, you know, it's what, three or four years since we finished and revisiting it.

It's been really interesting. It's been really nice. It's been nice to be at something like this, seeing people in their awesome costumes and hearing old things from the show. It's been a really lovely experience. Thank you, guys, actually. Thank you. What's it been like reconnecting with some of the cast members that are here this weekend? Yeah, so who have I seen? We've got Alfie. Yeah. Yeah.

Alfie, like me and Alfie were there right at the start. We've got this long shared history with this show. We were there in the original pilot. You know, there's only a few of us that made it from the original pilot, which got scrapped to the sort of end of the show. And me and Alfie are two of those. So we've got really special bond. So really lovely seeing Alfie especially.

You talked about this a little bit earlier, but I thought it was really interesting to hear you reflect on the fact that you were cast in such a monumental role in terms of your own career trajectory in your 20s and how in some ways you may have been better prepared for something like that in your 30s. It does. I think I mentioned earlier that you, you know, I guess there's no...

or ideal career trajectory for any actor. I got a really stratospheric boost into this world with Game of Thrones. You know, I left drama school, I went and did a play, and then I was in Game of Thrones. And Game of Thrones just blew up. And so I was 21 when it all started to kick off. And you think when you're 20, I don't know how many, how many 21-year-olds have we got in there? Yes! Yes!

You think you're grown up at 21. Sorry to that one person. But you're not. And I think being in something like this is kind of a shock to the system. But amazing. Like what better way to spare your 20s than in a show like this? But I think that what it's meant is that you look for that thing your whole career as an actor. I think you look for that thing, that one thing that just goes big or that you're known for.

And if you have it in your 20s, you're left going, oh, shit, what now? What do I do now? I did the thing. What the fuck do I do now? But the answer is whatever you want, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, the answer is that you go and I had this chat with Dan Weiss. I met up with Dan Weiss not so long ago. And he was like, man, we did the thing. And I was like, yeah, we did the thing. And then you go, well, I don't have to look for the thing anymore.

I can go and do what I want and I can go and explore and do strange, weird stuff. And I think that's a real there's a real release to that. So, yeah, it's you take that thing when you get it. And I got it in my 20s, which is cool. Speaking to everyone this weekend, one of the themes that has emerged is how kind of raw and vulnerable the acting process can be, the creative process can be.

You know, you mentioned what a rocket ship ride this was. Did you develop any kind of ways to step back to kind of protect yourself from this swirl of conversation around the show, the hype? Is there a way to kind of protect your mental health as you went through this process? Yeah. And you learn it as you go through. Number one, I kept a really solid group of friends around me who took the piss out of me all the time.

That's really important. They did not let my head get big. They did not let my feet lift off the ground. They kept me solidly down there. And they still do. So that was one thing. The other thing, and I think it's a thing we all need to be aware of, is I'd go on the internet and I'd look at stuff and I'd look at reviews and I'd look at what comments, the comments section, that box of doom at the bottom of the...

And it screwed with me. It really screwed with me. It really damaged my confidence for a long time. And I had to learn not to look at that stuff. And then that extended into my actual decision making about social media. I was like, I don't know what that gives me. I know what it takes, but I don't know what it gives. And I think each to your own. And some people probably find a lot of

brilliant stuff in social media. But I think for an actor in a show like this, it's the most dangerous thing. So I had to not do that. I'm not on social media. I had to like step away from that stuff. Those are the ways I protected myself. Also, the way you protect yourself is realizing that this is not, this is just a TV show. You could think you're the center of the earth and the world and you're the biggest thing since sliced bread, but you are just in a TV show. Yeah.

It's not, let's not get too big for our boots here. It's so interesting to me because I feel like you have such a balanced perspective about all of it now. Did that take time to acquire over the course of like having finished filming or do you think you always managed to kind of figure out what that good balance and distance from it was even when you were in it?

No, I found that balance all the way through. I think there were times when I got very unbalanced during the show. Rose says that we met, when we met, I was like, hi, I'm Kit Harington. I was like, who the fuck is that guy? What a douche. So I'm sure I had like, I'm sure I had like massive, like,

imbalance a lot of the time and and for sure privately during the show i had large imbalances going on and coping mechanisms and things that were very unhealthy in my life i always treated it as if it wasn't gonna be another season people took the piss out of me for it i was like we cut to season six and i was like there won't be a season seven and i but i tr i did that i was like no you can't take anything for granted and i think that was helpful

Are you able to look back now and kind of appreciate the ways in which you've grown as an actor, that you've kind of added tools to your toolbox? Yeah, I think any actor would find this. Going back and looking at your early work is very painful. Like, if I watch those early seasons of Thrones, especially the first season, I'm, like, wincing.

But I learned a huge amount throughout those eight years. I learned how the camera works, how to approach long running story and long form drama, the marathon level of it rather than the sprint. You know, I learned a massive amount and I feel at this stage of my life, I'm 35 now. I feel because of all of that, those hours of experience I had, I feel very centered as an actor.

now and very I feel aware of what I'm I'm good at uh and that's a good thing a good thing to know hi kid welcome to LA so my question is who is in your opinion deserves to be a king or queen of the seven kingdoms and in opinion of the Jon Snow so like two different opinions opinion of the kid Harrington and opinion of the Jon Snow well Jon Snow um

I think would have probably gone with Bran. Like, he would have gone with his brother. He would have toed the line, like, that person. By the end of the show, he's like, I don't know, that guy. I'm off. Bye. Me, and I hate that I'm saying this, just know that I hate that I'm saying this. And I absolutely 100% don't want to cheer, so anyone who cheers, get out. But I actually think Jon Snow would have been very good on this.

Hi, it's Angelina. How are you? So I just wanted to ask what it was like filming my favorite battle scene, Battle of the Bastards. I mean, it was amazing because we'd done Hardhome the year before. So I knew, yeah, and I knew how good Miguel was. But that made it scary because we knew Hardhome was a great episode and we'd filmed a brilliant action sequence and then we had to do it again.

And so it was daunting. I remember it being like, well, nothing can be as good as Hardhome. We loved Hardhome. And then we realized what, you know, what the plan was for it and how epic they were going to make it. And I started, you know, realizing what a genius Miguel was, that he could do it not once, but twice. He was going to do it again. We were filming it and...

I remember thinking this could be really special, but then seeing it was something else. I remember it was, it was blew me away seeing it. I was so, I was so happy with it. I think if I, if I look back at Thrones and I look back at my work on Thrones, that for me is my, it is the peak for me with the character. I think I'm most proud of that episode.

Hi again, Kit. People love to make a lot of comparisons between Ned Stark and Jon Snow in the sense that both are very honorable men, some of the few good people in this world. So with that comparison in mind, I wanted to ask, what do you think Ned would think about Jon killing Daenerys, especially with the sense that Ned, it's very critical about Jaime Lannister basically doing the same with Aerys II. So how do you think that conversation would go like?

It's not something I, it's a very good question. It's not something I've thought about, but I think that you're absolutely right that Ned very much judged Jaime Lannister being Kingslayer. And with Jon becoming Queenslayer, essentially, I think he would struggle with what his paternal figure would have thought of that. And I think that Ned actually would have disapproved of it, I think.

I think Ned was all about duty and honor and you serve, you serve, you serve. And it's Tyrion and Varys who convinced Jon to do that thing. And I think that's what he's mixed up about at the end when he's in that cell with Tyrion. He says, I don't know if we did the right thing, you know? So I don't think he knows, but I think Ned wouldn't have approved personally.

Oh, hi, Kate. So between season five and six, I think like, you know, at the end of season five, it seemed like Jon Snow was dead. But then in season six, we know he was alive. In between those two seasons, like how difficult was it to keep things under wraps? What was interesting about it, actually, is it was a sort of collective, like we're going to ignore the fact that we definitely know he's coming back.

It was like a global collective, you know, denial. Because I think if you look at it, if you were going to actually kill John, you'd kill him in the ninth episode and then you'd have a tenth episode of like digesting it, like they did with Ned. You don't kill him at the end of the tenth episode because there's clearly a cliffhanger. He's going to come back. So when I read it, I went, I'm not dead. Yeah.

And I think you all did too, but we all, for the fun of it, went, "Oh, maybe he does, maybe he doesn't." Which I think is quite sweet. But how hard was it? It was pretty-- I had to walk around Belfast with caps and there were drones going over set and it took a bit to kind of like keep it under wraps. Hi.

My name is Cindy. I'm a little nervous. So at the ending, we all know we were we were all like, what the hell were you expecting that ending? Because we were not. But by ending, you mean the the killing of of Danny? Yes. Here's my take on it. I think it's OK to be hurt. And I think that in Game of Thrones, there is the line is said, if you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been watching it.

reading, whatever it is. And I think that there were various things we all could have done differently throughout the show, not just in the final few seasons. But I think that the story is right. And I think John killing Danny, I'm sorry, I think is the right ending. For, yeah, for me. And that's, it's important to say for me. For you, it may not be, and that's okay too. Like, but I think for me, it felt like,

with where the show went, that felt right. Hi, I'm Jenny. I could follow up a little bit to that. My question was going to be, in light of both of Jon's greatest loves dying in his arms and in light of the fact that a possible show about Jon Snow is coming, my question is, is there room in Jon's heart to ever love again? Yeah, I hope so.

I hope there would be. I was thinking about Jon and his choice of women, which is the... I think he's like his maternal... The only maternal figure he had was Caitlyn, who hated him, treated him like crap, right? And he tends to go for really dominant women. It's quite interesting, isn't it? He goes for the really... And I think that there's some Freudian thing going on there. Especially the Ygritte thing burned him so much.

that he has definite PTSD and trauma about being in a relationship. So I think it would be tough. Hey, Kit. My name's Zach. Oh, hey, Jon. Hey. That's actually Con Snow. Yeah, that's me. Hi. I'd love to ask you, how do you feel Jon Snow's progression played into Kit's progression through life? I know what you're saying. It's tricky on this because...

It's quite a personal one because it like I, John's all about honesty and goodness and doing the right thing. And it's quite hard to live up to those ideals. And you're playing this character who everyone associates with goodness and the right thing. And he's a hero. And you're going through a show where everyone's stopping you on the street and going, God, you're a hero. You're a legend. You're John Snow. Like, and you don't sometimes feel like that. Do you know what I mean?

And I think that gap between us at times grew and I felt that he was the better man a lot of the time. And that rift caused me some problems because things got bigger and he just stayed good. And I was going through some personal shit and I didn't feel good. And so that could be quite painful. But at the same time, he didn't feel good.

Do you know what I mean? He felt bad. He felt like he was doing the wrong. So we had, I don't know. It's a, it's a weird one, but sometimes that's the closest I can associate. What, when actors quite wankily talk about their, you know, how in character they were or how mixed up with the character they got. That's the closest I can associate it with is that sometimes the lines did get blurred between us. Um, uh,

in how I felt about him and how I was perceived or he was perceived, if that makes sense. What was your favorite storyline that you weren't involved with during the entire show that Jon Snow was just not a part of? Good question. I really like Jaime Lannister. I think he's a cynic and he's an anarchist. And I really like that storyline. And I think he's someone who's trying to deny his heart.

He's trying to pretend or push down his emotions. I think Nikolai is incredible at it and is a brilliant actor and he was amazing as that role. And I think there was something about Jamie Lannister that just captured me and I really liked. Like all of us, he had good seasons and weird seasons, but like some of the bits, you know, when he loses his hand and the Brienne stuff, it's great. Yeah.

That reminds me of a question. Did you ever wish that John were less like unequivocally good? Yeah, that's a good question. I think John's main conflict is either to do what's honest or what's right. He gets caught in that. He cannot tell a lie. He cannot do anything that's not honest. And yet sometimes that's the wrong thing to do. I think he wishes that he could do the wrong thing, but he can't. He's just not built that way.

Right now, I look like a 70s porn star because... I love the way that got a whoop. I look like a 70s porn star because I'm playing a baddie in something and I'm really enjoying that. Yeah, it's fun. It's fun to play the baddie. Being the goodie is harder, I think, sometimes than being the baddie. As a reaction now, I'm trying to play weirder, more difficult, darker parts.

Hello. After filming eight seasons of Game of Thrones, I was wondering which season of Jon's character do you like the most? I think season two. Isn't that weird to say? It's like so far back. But there's something about season two that I love and I'm really proud of. And it's a kind of forgotten season in a weird sort of way. Like people remember the big events, but...

I think maybe it was the stuff with Ygritte, which I loved doing. That stuff in Iceland just felt very real and cool. We kind of lost it a bit as it went on because we had to, because we had to move the plot forward. But some of the earlier seasons were just full of like character moments where you got to just, nothing about the scene was driving the plot forward, but it was a really characterful scene. And I think that's what a lot of people fell in love with with the show. So I love some of those earlier season stuff.

So season two, I think. Hey, Kit. Thank you for being here and thank you for being Jon Snow. We all knew it was happening when Jon Snow got resurrected. We all knew it. I went to school the next day, hugged all my friends, celebrated woohoo. Jon Snow really...

that he came back to life in moving forward, which at the time in watching that, I was kind of like, oh, why is he doing that? So what's your take on why he downplayed that and didn't make such a big fuss about that? He, that's typically John, I think. He doesn't want to talk about it. Like, one of my most brilliant bits of writing in it is when he comes back to life and Davos says, I think it's Davos says, what was there? What did you see? And he said, there's nothing. And that's like...

holy shit, there's nothing like none of us know what happens after death. But like he knows and he doesn't want to he doesn't want to talk about it. He doesn't want to he doesn't want to therapize. He doesn't want to go into it. He doesn't want to like freak out. He just wants to live a life. And I think after that moment, he just wants to live a good life. And then he gets dragged back into stuff. So I think, look, John is very one thing John is is very Ned.

Like he didn't have a maternal figure growing up, but he had a paternal one and he copied him because the others might take a bit from both. But John just went, I'm Ned. That's who I am. And Ned wouldn't want to talk about it either. Like they're not modern men. And God, men could be a bit more modern as well. But like they're not they're not like these are not guys, you know, about sitting in a therapy chair. I died. I came back to life. Let's leave it. Yeah.

One of my favorite things to do is to watch online bloopers and outtakes of the show. And I was wondering about the lighter, harder moments on set and if there were any practical jokers or any pranks being played and who were they? And if you could give us like an example of a prank that you guys played or practical jokes that were happening on set. Yeah. David and Dan were the worst. David and Dan loved a practical joke. Um,

Did I ever tell you about the... I'm sure I must have told the one in season one where I go up against a white and they sent me the new sides. And in the new sides, it says, in the fight, John has his nose cut off to the very, like, core. And it's disgusting and he looks hideous. And he starts crying because of how horrible he looks. LAUGHTER

And I was like, oh man, I remember, and I called my mom. I was like, mom, I'm going to have to have prosthetics for years if this goes on. And then I pulled David and Dan aside on set and I was like, so this new thing, like that's a big, that's a big thing. And, and, and they were like, yeah, we felt you were getting a bit, you know, I saw Dan say, look, we felt what you were getting a bit kind of a bit Harry Potter.

And I just see David start laughing in the background. Oh, you. And they did a lot of that. They were big practical jokers. As far as the lighter-hearted moments on Thrones, like, for me, Thrones will always be...

Not the big glitz and glamour moments, not the big premieres, not the talk shows, not the publicizing it, not the even on the fight scenes or the big huge sets. To me, it would be sitting in a damp tent with Sansa, Davos Seaworth and someone else just chatting shit and having the best time.

And we honestly had the greatest group of people who were just funny. They're funny people in our cast and we had a laugh. And I think that that for me is what Thrones will be, is sitting in some god awful green room in the loosest possible term in a fucking heavy, wet costume, just laughing my tits off.

Hi, Kit. Okay, so I quote a lot of lines from TV shows and movies in my everyday life, and there's two from Game of Thrones I use quite often. My watch has ended is one of them. I was wondering if we can have it one last time as Jon Snow. Oh, I haven't done that voice for a while. My watch has ended. My watch has ended.

Hi. My question is the fact that your character, Jon Snow, he goes through such a progression throughout the seasons. He's a ward. He goes to war. So many things happen to him. He finds out that he's a Targaryen, and then he unfortunately has to kill Dany. And then he goes, you know, they throw him in jail, and then he ends up back on the wall. Do you ever feel like your character may have been cheated? He kind of goes back to really, you know, the wall isn't exactly the most comfy place on Earth. I felt bad for him. Yeah. Yeah.

I think if you asked him, he would have felt he got off lightly. The end of the show, when we find him in that cell, he's preparing to be beheaded and he wants to be. He's done. The fact he goes to the wall is the greatest gift to him and also the greatest curse. He's got to go back up to the place with all this history and live out his life thinking about how he killed Danny.

and live out his life thinking about Ygritte dying in his arms, and live out his life thinking about how he hung Olly, and live out his life thinking about all of this trauma. And that, that's interesting. So when we leave him at the end of the show, there's always this feeling of like, I think we wanted some kind of little smile or things are okay. He's not okay. He's not okay.

So here's my question. Why didn't you keep Ghost? So Ghost was a problem. Ghost was a problem for us. He's really difficult to film. He really is, like, I promise you. And I think that had we had less to do in the show, Ghost could have had a place. But the actual physical filming of that green screen animal is much more difficult than dragons, believe it or not, because it has fur.

And that fur has to move realistically. So you either superimpose this wolf that you've already filmed on, which always looks a bit shit. It's a really tricky thing. And I think that when they thought about Nymeria and Ghost and all the others, they were like, we can spend a ton of money and time doing this for not enough back.

or we can spend the money elsewhere. And you have to make those decisions in a show like that. You have to kind of go, okay, what have we got to cut? We're going to have to cut that thing. And I think that's, that's, that comes down to David and Dan and the choices, the hard choices they had to make. I do think Ghost, you know, has a place. I mean, he's brilliant in the books and he's such an interesting dynamic with the, those wolves are with the, with the kids and,

They're very difficult to film. And I can see why David and Dan decided that they were costing more than they could give in the show, in Game of Thrones, the show. Since the show has ended, are there any of the cast members that you've kept in touch with or are very close to? Yeah, yeah, there are. I think that it's a bit like leaving school, right? It's a bit like leaving college. You have this tightly knit bond of people who have bonded over this one thing.

And then it ends. And there's a deep sadness in that because you know that you're not going to be in that group of people having that shared experience again. And the magic from it is gone and you have to let it go. We do it as actors all the time. We go from job to job to job and you have this incredibly important shared experience and then you've got to let it go and move on to the next one.

And it does just disappear. You feel it in theater all the time. But you do hold on to a few relationships. And some of those relationships can be unexpected. Like, I don't think me and Amelia were that close during the show. Because we were always separate.

but now since the show's ended we've become very close like milia's very good friends with rose and she lives down the road from me so she's over all the time you know we're you know and she's playing with my kid and like we're just really we're really close me and clark you know and um

Ben Crompton, who played Dolores Edd, he's one of my favorite people in the world. I saw Christopher last night for dinner. I've seen Alfie today. Me and John Bradley keep up to date with each other a lot. Me and Liam see each other from time to time. Can't say Liam's name without laughing. Yeah, yeah, you're always going to make really strong friendships, but the actual, the magic of the group is gone. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah.

So there are very famous lines on the show like winter is coming and you know nothing. What's one line you think is underrated and people should like quote more or something? I always got, I'll tell you what, this is not an answer to your question. I always got really annoyed by the you know nothing Jon Snow. I still get annoyed by it because I don't know what it means. It's like, what do you mean I know nothing? What does that mean? What are you talking about? It's such a terrible insult.

I drink and I know things is fun. And especially kind of in contrast to that, I get, I drink and I know things, but I don't get, you know, nothing. I, for some reason I've never got it. I don't want it. Um, I don't know what would be a good line. What I always liked bronze lines, bronze lines were awesome. Bron always had a good exit line. Shout a few gone. Nothing fucks you harder than time is a good one.

Thanks for all the amazing questions. Let's hear it for Kit Harington. Thank you, Kit. Love you. Kit Harington. Now we've heard of him. What a, just again, just kind of floored at the spaciousness and patience of his answers. Yes. Well, this is it. The final episode of season one of the official Game of Thrones House of the Dragon podcast. What an incredible journey. It really has been. Any closing thoughts, Greta?

Oh my gosh. I mean, the show was great, but I think partly what made this whole thing so fun was just the team that we got to work with. I mean, Jason, obviously you're a delight, but the rest of the crew too. It was just a really wonderful group of people and I'm so grateful for the experience. So thanks, y'all. Yeah, I feel the same. All the people that we shout out at the end of our little credit reel, maybe not.

make us sound good every single episode and we thank them for that. Yeah, totally. So should we thank them? I guess that's what's next, right? Yeah, let's do it. First of all, we want to hear from y'all. Don't forget to leave a rating and review on your podcast player of choice and find us on the Game of Thrones and House of the Dragons social media handles. You can find me on Instagram at

X underscore network underscore X. And you can find me at Greta M. Johnson on Twitter and Instagram. The official Game of Thrones podcast, House of the Dragon, is produced by HBO Max in collaboration with iHeartRadio. This podcast is hosted by Jason Concepcion. And Greta Johnson. Never heard of her. Our executive producer is Molly Socha. Our supervising producer is Nakia Swinton. Our lead sound engineer is Matt Stillo.

This episode was edited by Sierra Spreen. Our producer is Jason Concepcion in association with Crooked Media. Big special thanks, as always, to Michael Gluckstadt, Alison Cohen, Kenya Reyes, and Becky Rowe from the HBO Max podcast team.

Also, Ashley Morton, Dana Froome, Liz Keating, and Megan McLeod at HBO Marketing. Yes, Jason, this is, in fact, the final episode of this season. We are going to take a little bit of a break, but don't worry, we will be back in no time. So be sure to keep an eye on the feed in 2023.