Major spoilers ahead for those who haven't yet seen Sunday's Game of Thrones Season 5 finale.
Jon Snow is dead. Long live Jon Snow.
Following the shocking death of Winterfell's noble bastard on Sunday's Game of Thrones Season 5 finale, the Internet has been overthrown by HBO fans collectively grieving the loss of one of TV's most beloved tragic heroes, played by the drool-inducing Kit Harington. (That and wishfully speculating about his return, despite GoT's repeated history of offing its core cast without so much as a flinch). For Harington, Jon Snow's five-season arc on GoT has been a game changer, launching the 28-year-old actor, as the show did for a number of his colleagues, from relative anonymity outside of London's theater circuit to global heartthrob status. "Game of Thrones nearly got canned the first time the pilot was shown because it was shit," he recalls, in disbelief.
But the tragic hero plotline isn't over for Harington, who met me at New York's Crosby Street Hotel—still with a headful of luscious Jon Snow curls—to promote his latest movie, Testament of Youth, a heart-wrenching adaptation of Vera Brittain's celebrated WWI memoir, in which he plays a young, love-struck British soldier. Looking enchantingly present-day in his round specs and armed with droll, straight-faced sarcasm, Harington opened up about his fondness for skirts, the lost art of letter writing and serenading Rose Leslie (his onscreen—and rumored ex-off screen—love interest) for a GOT musical the cast shot with Coldplay's Chris Martin.
Between Game of Thrones and Testament of Youth, you've worn your fair share of fantasy and period costumes. What's been your favorite wardrobe moment?
I've worn a lot of skirts, which is weird. But they're really comfy. Men should be able to wear skirts, I believe [laughs]. I did a movie called Pompeii, and I got to wear a tunic—that was also quite fun.
Which era are you most fascinated by?
I'd love to be involved in a sci-fi film. I just watched Ex Machina, which is one of [Testament of Youth co-star] Alicia [Vikander]'s movies, and it's fantastic—really, really beautifully done. Amazing movie. Yeah, I want to do sci-fi. I love space shit, like Star Trek. I'm a sucker for that. It's why I did a World War I piece [laughs].
Speaking of which, I saw Testament of Youth yesterday and had a damn good cry.
Oh, good! Sorry to say that, but that's what we aim to do.
Your character Roland is a masterful letter writer, and his love story with Vera, the film's female lead, is told primarily through through their correspondence. Have you ever received a love letter?
Written and received. Do you know what? I think it's sad that we don't write letters anymore. We are in a generation of 140 characters or less. That's mad that we have to narrow down what we want to say into such small spaces. It's a completely different time. Roland and Vera wrote to each other frantically, every two days they would write long letters expressing their thoughts and feelings. We'll get back to that eventually. People will start rebelling.
Roland's a complete romantic. What about you?
I think I'm as romantic as Roland is.
I'd say that's quite romantic.
He's 19. You're more romantic when you're 19. It dies as you get older. But that was one of the really fun things to play with—that he was so schmaltz, in a way. He was so in love with Vera and so in love with himself and with the idea of love. Then, he gets torn up by war, and his whole idea of the world and what it should be breaks apart in front of his eyes.
Which scene, for you, was the most emotional to film?
The beach scene is kind of the climactic scene for Roland. I tried to build him up in the first part of the movie as being so idealized and having youth on his side. Then, on the beach, he tries to hide the crushing reality of what he's seen during war from his friends, but he can't hide it from his loved one. That was great to play. I loved that.
Vera Brittain's memoir, Testament of Youth, has kind of become the gold standard testimony of WWI through a woman's eyes. It's funny how only when you watch a movie told from a female perspective do you realize how few of those actually exist.
It's unique in that it's not just a story but war story told from the female perspective, which we never see. That's one of the reasons I wanted to do this. I thought it was very individual.
Let's talk Game of Thrones. Your epic White Walker battle two weeks ago in "Hardhome" made for the most popularly ranked episode yet.
I remember reading it and going, "The fuck?!" It was one of those moments. It's the first time Jon [Snow] encounters the big dog of the undead, the White Walker association. I thought it was fucking great. It was the coolest bit.
Possibly even more epic was the Game of Thrones "musical" you filmed with Coldplay's Chris Martin and the GOT cast for charity, as part of the Red Nose Day campaign.
I mean, if you're going to do karaoke—and I never partake in karaoke—having Coldplay as your backup artist is pretty cool. It was a lot of fun. And I hope it raised a lot of money because that was the aim of it. It wasn't just us having a laugh.
Other than karaoke with Coldplay, how do you relax?
I'm not good at relaxing. That's my problem. I don't like getting home after a really long day. I'm very bad at sitting still.
You know, you and I actually go way back. Before I knew who you were, I saw you perform your first big role as Albert in London's West End adaptation of War Horse—also a WWI piece.
You did? Oh, wow. I really like the First World War—well, that's a bad way of putting it. I don't really like the first World War; I'm really interested by the first World War. It's great that I got to play two completely different characters from that era.
And what I thought was so triumphant about War Horse— which incorporated life-sized puppets—was that it used a medium that people usually associate with child's play and still became both a critical and commercial hit.
Yeah, I think the things that turn out best almost always could be a disaster, you know? Like, I remember War Horse, in its early rehearsal stages, could have been a complete fucking disaster. It could have been ridiculous. Game of Thrones nearly got canned the first time the pilot was shown because it was shit. I think to make something really great you have to risk it being properly terrible.
When did you become "Kit?"
I've always been called Kit. It's short for Christopher, but I don't feel like a Christopher. It's weird that I have that name even attached.
Do you have any other nicknames?
My brother calls me Shitface.
[Laughs]. Yeah, I don't think Jack has called me Kit in years. I'm Shitface.