Kit Harington Calls These Game of Thrones Scenes "Horrific"

The show launched his entire career, earned him Emmy nominations, a Golden Globe nod, and turned Jon Snow into a household name. But as it turns out, not every moment in Westeros was as epic behind the scenes as it looked onscreen.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Harington admitted that some of the most action-heavy scenes — the kind fans usually lose their minds over — were actually miserable to shoot. Specifically, anything involving dragons.

"Emilia had been moaning about it for seasons, and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. You have not been through the mud in Northern Ireland,'" he said. "But she was absolutely right. It was horrific. It's not acting at all. It is not acting; it never will be acting, and it is not what I'd signed up for. It is very uncomfortable as a man."

That's right — after years of giving Daenerys grief for constantly working opposite imaginary fire-breathing lizards, Harington finally got his own dragon scenes, and immediately understood the pain. The rig used to simulate riding a dragon? Also awful. He didn't mince words: it was "horrific," "not acting," and absolutely not what he signed up for.

It's a bit ironic, considering this is a guy who later headlined Pompeii, a greenscreen-heavy historical disaster flick, and popped up in Eternals, one of the MCU's most CGI-saturated outings. In Thrones, he hated fake dragons. In Eternals, he was surrounded by immortal space gods. Somewhere along the way, he clearly got used to pretending to talk to things that weren't there.

Still, the dragon comments stuck. Clarke had spent years warning him it sucked — he didn't listen. Then he climbed on that effects rig, saw the truth, and immediately folded.

Maybe next time a co-star says something is awful, Jon Snow should try listening instead of assuming the mud of Northern Ireland trumps everything.

By the end of Thrones, most of the cast had tangled with a green screen or two, but Harington's confession remains one of the show's most quoted behind-the-scenes moments. And it's proof that for all the spectacle, sometimes the fantasy of Westeros was way less fun when the cameras stopped rolling.