Kit Harington is opening up about the highs and lows of being a celebrity.
After skyrocketing to fame as Jon Snow on Game of Thrones, the actor admits he found himself struggling to embrace his newfound stardom.
“I was enjoying it, but I was concerned, and I was worried, anxious,” he told emmy magazine, on stands Tuesday. “On a personal level as it went on, I stopped letting it have such an impact on me. Yes, I was in this big TV show and I was playing this character… but that’s not my life.”
Though he learned to relax over the years, Harington, 32, said his lowest point came when his character’s death in the season 5 finale was the focal point of the HBO mega-hit — which put his personal life under a microscope as well.
“It was probably one of the darkest periods I have been through in my life,” he said. “I think it must have had something to do with being a walking cliffhanger: I didn’t enjoy it. You want to be a lead, and then you get all the spotlight of the biggest show in the world onto you for a few months. It’s very disorientating, and weird, and unpleasant in many ways. That’s kind of where I went, ‘I need to separate me from the show a bit.’ “
Of course, Jon came back to life in season 7 and is now the King in the North, though be bent the knee to love interest Daenerys Targaryen at the end of season 7.
The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones premieres April 14. The following episodes will air over the course of the next five Sundays, with each one increasing in running time.
“I think it will be strong,” he said of the finale. “But you don’t want to mess it up on the very last outing.”
And while the actor said the finale doesn’t disappoint, he still expects there to be some mixed reactions.
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“I haven’t watched a single series that has a following like Thrones does where everyone is satisfied with the ending,” he said. “I don’t think that it’ll be any different with this. I think it will divide opinion.”
But with Thrones (for the most part) behind him, Harington said he’s eager to show fans his lighter side.
“I have played possibly the unfunniest character ever to have graced television,” he joked. “I love comedy. But Jon Snow is not a joke person. It’s quite nice to now subvert what people see you as, and show that you can be funny. In some ways comedy works even better if you’re the overly serious guy in a ridiculous comedy; then it can be even funnier.”
Game of Thrones returns April 14 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
