01-05-2025
Kit Harington Recalls His ‘Arrogance' During First Game of Thrones Scene With Bella Ramsey: ‘That Child Actor Is Wiping Me Off the Screen'
Long before they were The Last of Us' Ellie, and before they'd built Lyanna Mormont into a legendary — if pint-sized — badass, Bella Ramsey was just an 11-year-old actor on the set of a massively popular hit series.
And when Thrones star Kit Harington showed up for his first scene with Ramsey with a self-described 'arrogance' that included not knowing his lines cold, he quickly learned that acting 'opposite some child' was not going to go the way he expected.
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The former co-stars reminisce about that scene, which took place in Thrones' Season 6, Episode 7, in a new Interview Q&A. The interlude finds Harington's Jon Snow, along with Sansa Stark (played by Sophie Turner) and Ser Davos (Liam Cunningham), petitioning Mormont family head Lyanna for soldiers to join their cause. Though Lyanna initially refuses, she eventually is swayed by Davos' impassioned plea. (Read a full recap.)
After Harington notes that Ramsey 'brought a confidence and clarity that was quite unusual for a young actor,' a chagrined Ramsey recalls that they mouthed his lines to him during shooting.
'Now, I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, how awful,'' Ramsey says. 'But at the time, it came from a very innocent place of being like, 'Kit's struggling with his line, and I know it, so let me just mouth it to him.''
Harington hasn't forgotten. 'I do remember you helping me out, and it being quite humiliating,' he says with a laugh. 'But yeah, thanks for that.'
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When Ramsey says their behavior must've been 'annoying,' Harington corrects them. 'It wasn't at all. If anything I was like, 'Oh god, I've got to up my game. I came here not really being comfortable enough with my lines, in the arrogance of however old I was, thinking I'm just opposite some child. And then that child actor is wiping me off the screen.' Not that it's a competition, but you're like, 'Oh, I've got a bit too comfortable in my Jon Snow-ness.'
Ramsey is currently appearing in The Last of Us Season 2. Harington is part of the cast of HBO's Industry, which he joined in Season 3.
You can watch the scene in question at the start of the video below:
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