Kit Harrington shot to stardom after the debut of "Game of Thrones" in 2011, but playing Jon Snow, and the plot twists that came with it, forced the actor into therapy, he revealed to Variety this week.
The Englishman was just 24 when the hit HBO series launched. He was fresh out of drama school in London and not prepared for all the attention that would come his way.
"It wasn’t a very good time in my life," Harrington admitted to Variety. He could only describe the experience as a "shaky time" in his life. It did not help that all the attention was on his character, especially when he was killed off and then resurrected.
"My darkest period was when the show seemed to become so much about Jon, when he died and came back. I really didn't like the focus of the whole show coming onto Jon — even though it was invalidating my problem about being the weak link because things were about Jon."
Compounding the issue was pressure that Harrington had to feel like "the most fortunate person in the world" when instead he felt vulnerable and exposed.
"That was a time when I started therapy, and started talking to people," he explained. "I had felt very unsafe, and I wasn’t talking to anyone. I had to feel very grateful for what I have."
Harrington admitted that he felt anxious about whether or not he could act but, as he grew more comfortable in his role, his outlook began to change.
"It’s like when you’re at a party, and the party’s getting better and better," he continued. "Then you reach this point of the party where you’re like, it’s peaked. I don’t know what I could find more from this. You realize, well, there isn’t more. This is it. And the 'more' that you can find is actually in the work rather than the enjoyment surrounding it."
Harrington's revealing comments come weeks before HBO starts airing the eighth and final season of GoT on April 14, 2019.
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