Kit Harington recently shared an experience of being quickly ‘humbled’ by Bella Ramsey during their time filming Game of Thrones together.
HBO’s acclaimed fantasy drama series, adapted from George R.R. Martin’s books, debuted in 2011 and concluded its intense journey after eight seasons in 2019.
Over the years, fans developed a strong connection with the ensemble cast, yet behind the camera, there were inevitably some tensions among the diverse array of personalities.
In an interview with Interview Magazine, Harington, known for his role as Jon Snow, recounted an encounter with co-star Ramsey, who currently features in HBO’s adaptation of the video game, The Last of Us.
Ramsey, at the tender age of 11, portrayed the fiery Lady Lyanna Mormont with great prowess.
The two shared several scenes, and although Harington assumed working with a child would be straightforward, he was quickly proven wrong by Ramsey’s exceptional talent.
He noted that Ramsey possessed ‘a confidence and clarity that was quite unusual for a young actor,’ prompting him to reassess his own ‘arrogance.’
In a moment that highlighted teamwork, Harington mentioned how Ramsey, now 21, discreetly mouthed his lines to assist him when he forgot them.
“I do remember you helping me out, and it being quite humiliating,” he said in his interview with Ramsey for Interview Magazine, adding, “Yeah, thanks for that.”
The Nottingham-born actor, who identifies as non-binary, expressed some ‘remorse’ over their actions, acknowledging it might have been ‘annoying.’
“Now, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, how awful,'” Ramsey stated. “But at the time, it came from a very innocent place of being like, ‘Kit’s struggling with his line, and I know it, so let me just mouth it to him.’”
However, Harington disagreed, saying the gesture inspired him to raise his own performance.
“It wasn’t [annoying] at all,” he explained. “If anything I was like, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to up my game. I came here not really being comfortable enough with my lines, in the arrogance of however old I was, thinking I’m just opposite some child. And then that child actor is wiping me off the screen.’”
He confessed to feeling ‘overly comfortable in my Jon Snow-ness.’
Reflecting on his initial meeting with Ramsey, the 38-year-old actor remarked: “I’m going to blow a bit of smoke here, so I’m sorry, but there was a real feeling of you being a different entity of child actor. We were like, ‘Oh, they’re good.'”
“It didn’t feel like working with a child,” he added, to which Ramsey recalled not feeling like a child during the role.
“[B]ut now I see 11-year-olds and realize how tiny they are, so it’s weird to me that I was that size and that young, because I didn’t feel that tiny,” they commented.
While Ramsey has advanced to a leading role in The Last of Us, Harington took a hiatus from acting by entering a wellness facility after filming concluded in May 2019.