SNOWED UNDER
■ EXCLUSIVE by MIKE PARKER U.S. Editor GAME of Thrones star Kit Harington has told for the first time how he was buried alive beneath human bodies.
The British action hero, who returns as swashbuckling swordsman Jon Snow in next Monday’s season seven premiere, revealed he has always harboured a “real fear” of suffocation.
And his darkest dread became terrifying reality when filming a scene in which he was crushed beneath a pile of 15 burly bearded Irishmen.
Kit, 30, had to warn the producers, crew and fellow cast members of his deepseated phobia in advance.
He revealed: “One of the things we talked about was the human crushing and I just opened up and told everyone: ‘I’m terrified of that’.”
Director Miguel Sapochnik and his stunt co-ordinators warned all extras on the set in Northern Ireland to ensure the actor had room to breathe at all times.
But Kit said: “It was quite uncomfortable to do. Can you imagine 15 big, bearded Northern Irishmen crushing you?
“There was a moment where Jon could just lie down and let go, a bit like drowning. But he doesn’t. He fights his way to the top of the pile and, believe me, I wasn’t acting when I was clawing my way out.”
Kit and fellow Brits Emilia Clarke and Lena Headey, American Peter Dinklage, and Dane Nikolaj CosterWaldau have become the most expensive cast in TV history. They will earn more than £2million each per episode as a result of new pay deals that include complex bonuses based on viewing numbers in the 170plus countries that broadcast Thrones.
And they are all likely to be offered huge incentives to stay in character way beyond next year’s planned eighth and final season of the dungeons-and-dragons series.
Cable giant HBO has hired a new team of three top screenwriters to conjure up spin-off sequels and prequels as well as a possible full-length movie.
Network president Carter Bloys confirmed the projects will explore “different time periods”.
He added: “I’m very open to anything that makes sense creatively.”
One of the possible spinoffs being discussed at HBO focuses entirely on Night’s Watch icon Snow, according to insiders, but would depend on a separate new contract with Kit.
If so, the London-born actor might get to keep his prized sword. He said: “I’d hoped that when this series finally wraps after an eighth season, I might get to keep my on-screen sword Longclaw as a souvenir. But as the show’s become more and more famous, I very much doubt I’ll get it now. I think it’ll end up in some HBO museum.”