Kit Harington made a name for himself playing the heroic Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, but it appears he's grown tired of playing good guys.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly about his villainous role in Blood for Dust, the Eternals star explained why he jumped at the chance to play someone whose morals are a little murkier than Jon's.
"I rarely get the opportunity to play the Rickys of this world, the antagonistic dirtbag types, and I was excited to be presented with that opposite an actor like Scoot [McNairy]," Harington explains. "So that was the kind of pull, and then Rod, the director, had such a clear idea of what he wanted to do and had it so well planned that I just felt very much in safe hands."
"It felt well put together," he added. "And then it's all about growing a big old mustache and adopting a seriously American accent."
The actor would go on to explain that, in the five years since Game of Thrones ended, he's been searching for darker roles which would be considered the polar opposite of his Game of Thrones character.
"That is seemingly what I've been hunting a bit," Harington admits. "If I look at the roles I've taken since playing an out-and-out hero in Game of Thrones, I have to admit there seems to be some sort of pushback about playing a hero. I'm not so interested in heroic roles, and if I am, they have to be pretty anti-hero-ish."
"My heart goes out to people playing heroes," he adds. "They're f*cking hard to play and to make interesting. It is more fascinating as an actor, I think, to empathize with someone deeply faulted and wrong, to try and find your way into why they are doing these things."
"[Playing] a guy who is doing all the right things and is driven by being good, it's harder to do that. And I think people who do it successfully, who play classically heroic roles, are very talented actors. But at the moment, I just find it more interesting looking for the f*cked-up people."
Of course, many of you will wonder why Harington signed up for Eternals if he feels this strongly about not playing heroes. Well, Black Knight is a rather morally ambiguous character on the page who struggles with the influence of the Ebony Blade, so that was likely something he looked forward to sinking his teeth into.
Unfortunately, there's still no word on when or where we'll see Harington's Black Knight again (rumour has it he was cut from Blade), so perhaps DC Studios can take advantage and sign him up to a villainous role in the new DCU?