Kit Harington Reveals His First Impression of Emilia Clarke, and Even the Iron Throne Is Melting

Updated on April 18, 2019 at 11:13 PM

Esquire | Alexi Lubomirski

Kit Harington is the latest star on the cover of Esquire for its May 2019 issue, and boy does he look good. In addition to looking swoon-worthy in a series of sexy outfits (um, that blue suit though!), the 32-year-old actor (who famously plays Jon Snow on Game of Thrones) opened up about everything from what it was like meeting pal Emilia Clarke for the first time to how difficult it was saying goodbye to Jon Snow forever. Given that Kit is a huge prankster, the actor also revealed the best prank he ever pulled on his costar John Bradley.

After a much-anticipated wait, Game of Thrones finally returned for season eight on Sunday, and the premiere was even better than we hoped for. Not only does Jon return to Winterfell, but there was even an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia cameo! Yep, this might be the show's biggest season yet! Check out what else Kit had to say ahead, then read his full Esquire interview here.

On his close bond with the Game of Thrones cast: "I haven't got any little sisters or little brothers. I've got one older brother. But I guess if I were to say, 'What's the closest thing I have to a younger sibling?' it would be Isaac [Hempstead Wright], Maisie [Williams], and Sophie [Turner], just from a shared experience. It's a weird thing seeing someone like Sophie grow from 13, 14 — I can't remember how old she was when she started the show — to now, when she's 23 years old and engaged . . . Sophie and Isaac grew past me! Each year, they'd come back and they'd just be taller. I'd go from looking down at them to looking up at them. Now they pat me on the head. I used to pat them on the head, ruffle their hair. Now Sophie ruffles my hair."

On pranking John Bradley while shooting season five of Game of Thrones: "So the story behind this one is that it was season five, when John Bradley, as Samwell Tarly, leaves the Wall and goes off to the Citadel. Me and Hannah Murray (who plays Gilly) decided to pull a prank on John, because obviously he'd be getting a new costume. So we said to the costume people, 'Can you just mock up the most ridiculous outfit you can possibly come up with that could still be feasible? Like it can't be too wild, because you won't believe it — but just about feasible.' The amount of effort and time that's gone into that, just for a joke, is brilliant. I was expecting a text saying, 'What the f*ck have they done with my costume?' And I didn't get anything, and I turned to Hannah and I was like, 'I think we've genuinely upset him.' We got a report back from the costume designer saying that he completely bought it. I was like, 'Let's see if he has to call his agents or how far this goes.' He was so silent [when] he got on set and I think they even hung it up in his trailer for his first day before they broke it to him. And then I still didn't hear from him and I thought I'd actually pissed him off. I asked him afterward, and he was like, 'I was never going to tell anybody about that.'"

On meeting Emilia Clarke for the first time: "I remember the first time I ever saw her. She came into the Fitzwilliam bar. I had been talking to Richard Madden at the bar and he went, 'I've just met the new Daenerys. She's gorgeous.' And I was like, 'Really? I haven't met her yet.' And then she came in and I saw her and was like, 'Wow.' She takes your breath away when she walks into a room, Emilia. I think we're good mates because we, maybe more than anyone else, know what the other one's going through a bit. I don't mean to sound like we're going through the worst thing in the world, but I think no one else other than Emilia will know exactly what being on Thrones is like, the way we're on Thrones. That's really how we kind of bonded."

On saying goodbye to Jon Snow forever: "My final day of shooting, I felt fine . . . I felt fine . . . I felt fine . . . Then I went to do my last shots and started hyperventilating a bit. Then they called, 'Wrap!' and I just f*cking broke down. It was this onslaught of relief and grief about not being able to do this again. It wasn't so much about Jon. It was about not being in this world, not getting to smell those smells, fight those fights, be with these people — the whole package. But the weirdest bit was when we came off set and they started taking the costume off and it felt like being skinned. It felt like they were unceremoniously, for the last time, ripping off this character. I was still blubbering my tears. The costume girls were like, 'F*cking, come on, get it together.' I'm being very actorly and crying. I remember going, 'Wait, wait, wait!' And they wouldn't. They just ripped. I was like, 'I need to say goodbye.' But it was too late. He was gone."