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Topics: Game of Thrones, Celebrity, Film and TV, HBO
Tom Wood
Jack Gleeson, who famously played the evil King Joffrey Baratheon on HBO’s Game of Thrones, says that he’s never actually watched the TV show. In the past he's shared how the show made him rethink how involved he was with acting, as you can see in the video below.
Gleeson made his name on the hugely-successful TV series playing one of the most hateful characters going.
Joffrey Baratheon was a bizarre product of incest between his mother and uncle, who turned out to be an horrific child that was somehow granted dominion over the seven kingdoms of Westeros.
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In the end, like a load of characters in Game of Thrones, Joffrey got what was coming to him, poisoned at his own wedding, and fans were left with a lasting impression of the boy king choking to death whilst his mother cried over him.
Gleeson more than played his role in making Joffrey as despicable as he was, playing his role incredibly well and delivering some of the best and most memorable acting on the show.
Still, the Irish actor claims that he never saw any of that, because he doesn’t really like watching himself on screen.
What’s more, he moved to dismiss rumours that he’d encountered people who hate him because of his character, saying that he’s only ever really had positive experiences.
Speaking at a Q&A session at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the now 30-year-old Gleeson said: "Thankfully, I've never had any negative fan experiences or anything....
“There's still a chance, if anybody wants to throw a punch."
Don’t though.
In fact, don’t punch anyone, let alone for playing a TV character you didn’t like.
The rumors have been rife since Gleeson left the show that he was getting hassle for his acting skills, but it’s just that – rumors.
Gleeson continued: “A lot of people come up to me because I guess this rumor started that people were horrible to me on the street or I get attacked…whereas I've never had one negative experience,
"I feel like people are extra nice to me because they think people attack me, so maybe I should keep the rumor going."
However, he did reveal that he didn’t like the fame that came with his appearance on the show, recalling: “While I was filming Game of Thrones, I was also in university in Dublin and even though since I was a kid all I wanted to be was a celebrity, when I became famous, I then realized…
“Whenever I go to a pub all of my friends then just have to become photographers because people give them their phone and then their night is ruined.”
That said, ‘every interaction was perfectly lovely and perfectly nice’ he added.
Perhaps the biggest revelation from the late-2022 question session was that Gleeson has never seen the show himself.
It all started because he just doesn’t like watching himself, but that continued after he left and he never saw how things ended.
When asked about that controversial ending, he said: “There was something about it where I was just like, 'No, I'll just leave it'."
He knows that people were ‘mostly disappointed’ with how it all shook down, but added: “Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I don't have one personally.
"That's not a political answer.
“I just didn't watch it."