Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage on ‘Game of Thrones,’ Nudity, Sobriety

Harington: For me, I had no idea what “huge” was. I didn’t know what pilot season was. I knew what the Emmys were. I knew the letters “HBO” because I knew “The Sopranos.” And I knew I was in an American TV show. That was huge, just being employed. But it was an alarming realization when it started to be a success. It was like, “OK, this is good, but it’s getting a bit scary now.”

Harington: Did you feel prepared for it?

Dinklage: My first kid was born at the end of the second season. So much of my life was changing at that time. She went to school in Ireland half the year and had an Irish accent. So while the young ones were off going around, I was getting her to school in the morning. It was such a homebody existence for me in Belfast. My daughter is still in touch with her friends from there. I had a very different reality. I wasn’t going back to London on my days off like a lot of you guys were. I was really immersing in that town.

Harington: For me, in my 20s, we were just tearing it up. Everything’s electric. But on top of that, being in this thing and it just goes nuclear — the reins came off at times.

Dinklage: Which is understandable. In my 20s, for a lot of us, we were struggling still. Twenties are about making mistakes, breaking hearts, getting your heart broken, fucking up. And I think mistakes are really important in life, but with you guys, all your mistakes were public knowledge.

Harington: The further I get away from it, the more I realize it was a weird way of growing up. But I think we were very protected in that place. I’m thankful I was in Belfast for a lot of it. I once insulted Belfast. I should make a public apology to Belfast. I don’t know why I’m bringing it up again, actually. I’m just digging up old — I’m not going to do it again. But I’m now in the place that you were then, with two kids, and I love it.

Dinklage: What was the first thing you did when the show was over?

Harington: I decided to go to rehab as Episode 1 [of the eighth and final season] was airing, and I was there for six weeks. I needed to get sober. I needed to get my head on straight. I was like, “Wait a minute, there’s loads of press that needs to be done. You need to be front and center.” But it was a good decision to go, “Actually, I’m checking out. I can’t do this.”

So I didn’t see the last season. And then I decided to take a year off work to get sorted. Right as I’m going to reengage with work, COVID hit. So it was this very strange period after the show ended. Massive society sledgehammers or personal sledgehammers. But it allowed me to figure out — not to be too wanky — who I was. And whether I really wanted to do this anymore, talking bluntly. I spent a lot of “Game of Thrones” working from a place of pain. It was the character as well, I think.

Dinklage: A lot of those characters have nothing but pain.

Harington: But Tyrion brought so much humor and pain to the thing. I’m very proud of the work I did, but I was pulling purely from pain. One of the things I’ve realized since finishing is looking at what you were doing so naturally, mixing those together. It was that joy I needed to discover post-“Game of Thrones.” What were the years after like for you?

Dinklage: You start to try and engineer things to get yourself out of the Tyrion box, because that’s the greatest character I’ve ever played, but you don’t want to go right into doing that more. And people want more. Not to rail against our industry — because I get in trouble sometimes for railing against it, so I gotta choose my words carefully — but I think Tyrion, for someone my size, opened people’s eyes. In that fantasy genre, most often, those characters are not really fully realized human beings. But once “Thrones” ended, I was still getting fantasy things that were back to what it was before. Like, “Damn, I thought we were out to change things.”

I didn’t really do a heck of a lot. I did a lot of smaller films. I started trying to make my own projects, and I haven’t done something I didn’t want to do since. Before “Thrones,” there was a lot of good stuff, but there was a lot of stuff I wasn’t too proud of.

Harington: But you were surprised that even after “Thrones,” there were still obstacles there.

Dinklage: I didn’t become an actor to change the world. I’m not a leader of any sort. People put that on you as soon as you say anything political or even personal. It can be misconstrued as speaking for everybody, and that’s never my intention. It’s just from my own personal vantage point.

Harington: I spent a lot of time during “Game of Thrones” terrified about saying anything. Terrified about walking into a room with the social anxiety I had, and being asked questions that were complex and difficult and I had feelings about, but not knowing whether what I was going to say was OK. As I’ve got older, I’m like, “I think what I think, and I believe what I believe. and I’ll say what I want to say.”

One of my main problems is living in the end product. What the critics are going to say about it — thinking, “Is this going to get nominated for something?” Do you have a method, other than trying not to do it? My only tool is not being on social media. But it’s one of my biggest vices.

Dinklage: Because you’re a kind person. We have to care what people think, because we’re sharing our souls. If you don’t care what people think, then maybe you’re not the kindest person. I care what my kids think. My kids dictate what choices I make now. But the joy of getting older is not caring anymore. I have my friends; I have my family. If you’re pleasing everybody, maybe you’re doing something wrong at the same time. Everybody’s going to be a critic and troll and be icky on social media. Glad you’re not on that.

Harington: I’m weirdly doing a lot of nudity at the moment, and sex scenes. The more I do it, the more I think, “I think I should stop.” I’ve got to start thinking about my kids, like, “Why is Daddy always naked on-screen?”

Dinklage: It’s OK. Nudity’s good. Kids are always naked in the house. We see enough of them. It’s OK — that’ll be a conversation for the therapist one day.

Harington: They’re going to have to watch me and their mom, [“Game of Thrones” star Rose Leslie].

Dinklage: My kids just watched “Thrones” this past year.

Harington: How was that?

Dinklage: My 8-year-old son was really into it. He loves all the dark arts. He writes scary stories. He’s a future Stephen King.

It did bring up a lot of memories. To see it through their eyes was wild. I’m going to do this new “Alien” show this fall, and it’s my son’s favorite show. That’s one of the reasons I said yes. Like, “I’m going to be such a hero in his eyes.” I told him and he was like, “What? Don’t fuck up my favorite show, Dad.” Because it’s going to take him out of it. I didn’t think about that. I’m going to be a bit of reality in his escape.

Harington: That’ll last only a moment, though. Then he’ll realize he gets to go on set, and he’ll love it. I’ve also found something weird about parenting: I used to hate being infantilized on set. I felt like I was treated like a little child. I fucking love it now. You go from looking after the kids at home — you’re like their servant, carrying things, “Is this fine for you, sir?” — and then you get to set and someone goes, “Would you like a cup of tea?” And you almost cry. You’re like, “Yes. Thank you.”

Dinklage: “You’re asking me?”

Harrington: “Can I get you dressed now?” “Yes, please.”

Dinklage: “Oh, you’re gonna tie my shoelaces for me? Thank you. Because I do that at home all the time.” Yeah, it’s quite magical.

Harington: So I watched “The Lowdown.” You were in that show for one episode, but from the moment you walked onto camera to the moment you left, I entirely bought and believed your entire history as that character. I don’t know whether it’s preparation on your part, whether it’s something you just intrinsically have as an actor, but whenever I watch you, I know this person’s whole story.

Dinklage: With that gig, which was really fun, I went to Tulsa for a week and came into a show that was already going for six months. Everybody knows each other. But Ethan Hawke, who I had known for 35 years — he was the first famous person my age that I knew and became friends with — he’s the lead of that show. So I think what you’re seeing is that history reflected, him and I. We’re older now, and that whole episode was all about our past, about a mutual friend. We already had that built in. It felt so natural and easygoing. My favorite filmmakers are Cassavetes and his friends, just getting together and making a movie, which has become rare. And on that set in Tulsa, it felt like it did back in the old days.

It’s like the early days of “Thrones.” We bonded. A lot of it had to do with being out in the rain together, not in a studio. Nobody fussing with us. And we had the luxury of a decade together.

Harington: At the time we were like, “This is the cheapest show.” A tent with one heater, and everyone’s freezing. But looking back, it’s exactly that that made it what it was.

Dinklage: We also didn’t have a separate tent for [the main actors]. We were all in there like, “How you doing, man? You speak English?” There was no pecking order.

“Industry” — did you think you were going to do another TV show after “Thrones”? How did that come about?

Harington: I decided I didn’t want to do any other TV characters for a while. Then I turned and said to my manager, “I feel like I’m ready to take on a character arc again. I miss it.” “Industry” is one that I’d been watching. And the writers [Mickey Down and Konrad Kay], when I met them, reminded me a lot of [“Game of Thrones” creators] David Benioff and Dan Weiss. And I came in and played this character that had a lot of pain there, but there’s a lot of humor. I was like, “This is the kind of thing I’ve been looking for, in the shape I’ve been looking for it.” The trouble for me with Jon Snow was that I couldn’t, for many years, be lighter.

Dinklage: It’s a heavy cloak. There’s nothing worse than an actor complaining, but Spain was very hot, and I often would raise my hand going, “If Tyrion’s so smart, why is he wearing these clothing in this 100 degree weather?”

Harington: Do you remember we had those cold vests?

Dinklage: Yeah, the tubes that ran through.

Harington: And an ice thing you’d plug in.

Dinklage: I was like, “No, thank you,” for a week. I was like, “I’m going to suffer.” And then at the end I was like, “No way,” because everybody else was nodding off because they felt so comfortable. Rory [McCann, who played The Hound] especially. Jesus Christ. He was under a lot of stuff.

What you said about that arc is really fascinating. Starting from A, going to Z, and they’re a completely different character. To have [Jaime Lannister] push a little kid out the window and then later on you love him — it’s just fascinating to me. That’s the epitome of our show. He tries to kill a kid, and he’s a hero later. That’s how complicated narrative can be.

Harington: With “Industry,” it afforded me to come in for one season, play a more comedic character, and then the next season really understand him and get deeper and play tragicomic. The trouble with “Thrones” — not trouble, it was a glorious thing, but I didn’t have the push-the-kid-out-the-window moment. Jon is good from the word “go.”

Dinklage: The rest of us got to howl at the moon a bit more than Jon Snow did.

Do you keep in touch?

Harington: With the [“Game of Thrones”] cast? With Emilia [Clarke], yes, because she’s just down the road. But there’s an element of school leavers to it. We finished the thing, the magic is gone and everyone has to separate. But I do text John [Bradley] and Richard [Madden], and I’m still in touch with Alf [Allen].

Dinklage: I’ve been told sometimes by friends, “Text me more, man. Be a better friend.” With kids and stuff, you let time go by.

Harington: But I think we were all quite desperate — we just had to get on with life. We had so much time together that actually, we needed some [space].

Dinklage: We still have all those AI photos online of all us together at barbecues. Good to see you, man.

Harington: Love you.

Dinklage: Love you.

Prop styling and art direction: Shawn Patrick Anderson/Acme Studios; Assistant prop styling: Joseph Bell