Jack Gleeson, who plays King Joffrey Baratheon in “Game of Thrones,” talked about his role on the show.
The 21-year-old Irish actor gave an interview with EW.com.
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS BELOW
Gleeson’s character is killed off during his wedding after he is poisoned.
“You want to do the scene and character justice. It’s a complicated scene; I’ve never had a death on screen before. You want it to look believable — the choking and the coughing. It’s calming to know I’m in the great hands of [director] Alex Graves,” he told EW.
He added that doing the death “was tough.”
“I suppose it’s one of those things that you have no prior experience in. I’ve never seen anyone die. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like. But Alex very kindly walked me through it. It was fun in the end, but kind of stressful to be so focused, but acting like you’re completely unfocused. Difficult, but exciting,” he said.
Gleeson also suggested that he probably won’t do another acting role after King Joffrey.
“The answer isn’t interesting or long-winded. I’ve been acting since age 8. I just stopped enjoying it as much as I used to. And now there’s the prospect of doing it for a living, whereas up until now it was always something I did for recreation with my friends, or in the summer for some fun. I enjoyed it. When you make a living from something, it changes your relationship with it. It’s not like I hate it, it’s just not what I want to do,” he said.
And for those who disagree with his life decision, he said to them: “Deal with it.”
In another interview, he said that Joaquin Phoenix’s role as Commodus in “Gladiator” inspired him, according to The Independent.
“It’s interesting sometimes when an audience can empathise with a villain. But to get completely lost in it, it’s exciting just to be intrinsically evil and not have a speck of good or humanity in their bones,” he said at the time.
