What Jon Snow knows
‘Thrones’ actor has all the right fighting moves, but only on the set
‘Game of Thrones’ actor has all the right fighting moves, but only on the set.
When the cameras are rolling, Kit Harington is invincible.
“Put me in any movie or TV fight scene. Put a sword in my hands and have a 300-pound man charge at me with a murderous look in his eyes — I’m fine,” says the star of “Game of Thrones.” But in real life? Kit is a klutz. In a sheepish but beautifully eloquent British voice, he confesses, “I’m always in more danger of hurting myself in real life. I’m the guy who gets bored, doesn’t pay attention and trips over his own feet.” “I’m safe working,” he jokes. Harington has a lot of work coming his way these days, both in a new season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” where he plays Jon Snow, and in the epic film “Pompeii,” opening Friday.
In “Pompeii,” he’s Milo, a slave turned gladiator whose true love is ordered to marry a corrupt Roman senator while Pompeii is crumbling all around them. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the film also stars Kiefer Sutherland and Emily Browning. The story demanded certain body type, and “buff ” didn’t begin to cover it. “Gladiators were the celebrities of their time,” Harington says. “I read that they were well fed and groomed, so I wanted to look the part.” He worked with a nutritionist and a trainer to add some sculpted bulk. “We went for that Robert De
Niro in ‘Cape Fear’ prison look,” he says. ssion.” Harington’s following from “Game of Thrones” is worldwide. “There is no bloody country I can go to where someone doesn’t shout ‘Game of Thrones” to me,” Harington says. “I can’t go to the bathroom anywhere without someone saying, ‘Game of Thrones.’ Sometimes they raise a fist in the air. This is strange in a bathroom.”
The new season premieres April 6. “It’s the most expensive season we’ve ever made,” he says. “It’s hugely action-packed and a big, big season for me.”