Find out which actor from “Game of Thrones” reveled in playing his character, yet one of the most hated by fans.
SPOILERS – “Warning, the article below contains spoilers. If you do not wish to know the content, please do not read the following…”
Are the bad guys definitely more interesting to play than the good guys? In the book Behind the scenes of Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne by Bryan Cogman (quoted by Entertainment TV), actor Jack Gleeson, who played Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones, confided the pleasure he had in playing a character hated by fans, despite scenes that were not always easy to shoot:
Strangely, it’s a lot of fun to play the bad guy. While filming the riot, I was raging like a brat with horse shit all over my face.
In this sequence from episode 6 of season 2, Joffrey crosses Port-Réal and the people, who are hungry, throw a dung in the face of the young king. There follows a riot scene which turns tragic as several villagers are killed, a man is cut up alive and the queen, Sansa Stark, narrowly escapes gang rape. Upset by the situation, Joffrey remains passive.
HBO The dung scene
His character is complex, as confided by his interpreter, still in the book: “Joffrey is just a kid who wanted a father and never had one. All he wants is some form of recognition, an ‘I love you’. But he’s getting publicly rejected. Not amazing that it drives him to hate others and mistreat them.”
Like many Game of Thrones characters, Joffrey doesn’t end the show alive. In the second episode of season 4, during the celebration of his wedding with Margaery Tyrell, he is poisoned and dies in the arms of his mother Cersei.
HBO
Since the end of the series, we have been able to see Jack Gleeson again in Rebecca’s Boyfriend, unpublished in France, the story of a man who cheats on his wife and greatly questions himself. But for much of the public, he will remain the one who condemned Ned Stark to death in season 1 of Game of Thrones and inflicted the worst affronts on his daughter Sansa.