Kit Harington On Game of Thrones’ Spectrum Of Sexuality, Jon Snow, And Objectification
Out Magazine recently had a chat with Kit Harington, asking him about how he feels about this current season of Game of Thrones, as well as how he feels about the show’s commitment to portraying diverse sexual preferences.
For starters, he’s starting to feel the change in his character, and the change that’s happening in the world around him. When asked how he feels about having to say farewell to fellow cast members whose characters have gotten the axe (sometimes literally), he said:
“So many people have left and died. It’s getting thinner and thinner on the ground each year. I’m just holding on to those people that have been there from the start, the core group, and wishing and praying that none of them die.”
Talk about getting into character. In Jon Snow’s time in the Night’s Watch, most of his immediate family have met a gruesome end, often for trying to “do the right thing.” Now that Jon is trying to do the same as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, you can’t help but feel the worry bubbling up in your own stomach that seems to come up every time someone “does the right thing” in Westeros.
If anybody would know what’s going to happen, it would be Harington himself, but he’s remained adamant about staying a fan this season. He said, “Every year, I’ve known before everyone else what happens. This year, I just thought, I want to watch as a fan.”
Harington also made note of the fact that Game of Thrones is a show that quite unabashedly strives for diversity when it comes to sexualities.
“There is something quite homoerotic about [the Night’s Watch]. They all bunk up together. I haven’t really thought about it too much, but they’re brotherly. There’s brotherly love.”
Talking about the show as a whole, he also explained:
“It’s not just gay and straight. We’ve got bisexual characters as well, which is rarely done on TV. I like the fact that we deal with a broad spectrum of sexuality.”
Tangential to this, Harington also brought up objectification and his oft-repeated stance on how he finds being called a “hunk” demeaning.
“I found it unfair, really, some of the stuff I read [in response]. I was making a point, which was that I think young men do get objectified, do get sexualized unnecessarily. As a person who is definitely in that category, as a young leading man in this world, I feel I have a unique voice to talk about that. I was making a point to sort of say, ‘It just needs to be highlighted.’ With every photo shoot I ever go to, I’m told to take off my shirt, and I don’t.”
It’s clear that Harington has been thinking a lot on the new challenges his role has brought him, speaking both in-character and out-of-character. This season promises to be a big season for Jon Snow, and let’s just hope that he knows enough to survive the winter.
(via Winter Is Coming)
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