John Bradley: 'I struggle with the huge space Game of Thrones takes up in my life'
Actor John Bradley is moving on from Game of Thrones and beginning to embrace Christmas
REBECCA SPENCER
- Stephen Kelly
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What’s the view from your sofa?
A big wall-mounted telly. The first thing I did when I got a place of my own was to get one, with very little else in the periphery. I like an uncluttered viewing experience.
What have you enjoyed recently?
The Pitt. Somebody recommended it to me, saying, “It’s set in a hospital, but I’m not going to tell you the form and structure of it.” As soon as you click into the idea that this is continuous time, it gives you a sense that you’re watching something really brave and special.
You were fresh out of drama school when you were cast as Sam Tarly in Game of Thrones. How do you reflect on it now?
It changed my life professionally in ways I can’t quantify, because no matter how far away you get from it, you’re not going into any new casting situation with a total blank slate. It taught me a lot about self- worth. I wasn’t in the greatest place when we started, and over the course of it I learnt that I was good at something. Recently I’ve tried to distance myself from it. When people come up to me, it’s nice, but they’re talking about work that I did eight years ago and I’m a bit like, “Am I always going to have to be backwards-looking in my career?” I’m forever in its debt, but I do struggle with its importance and the huge space that it takes up in my professional life.
There has been talk of a sequel series. If that happened, would you consider returning?
I’d probably rather leave it in the past. I think it depends on what the script is like. If I think about playing that character again now, I can’t do it. If I even just look in the mirror and try to do the voice and the manner, I can’t really access it any more. If he’s just going to go in and be as we always knew him, and have the function that he always had, I probably wouldn’t be interested. But if there was an interest in ways that the audience – and me as an actor – could learn more about him and place him in different situations, that would feel like doing a new part, almost.
Your new film, Merry Christmas Aubrey Flint, is about trying to save a care home from closure. How would you pitch it?
It’s identifiably a Christmas film, with a lot of the expectations people have – there’s a comic spin, heart and warmth – but it deals with mature themes like grief, childhood trauma and loneliness. It’s a Christmas film about people you would normally not expect a Christmas film to be made about.
It’s out early for a Christmas movie. Is it difficult to get into the festive spirit on set when Christmas is so far away?
It is a bit, but that hermetically sealed bubble of the set did feel like Christmas, because you’re around it every day, working long hours and the outside world isn’t really impinging. We shot a lot of the exteriors in York, and York feels like Christmas all the time anyway!
Do you relate to your curmudgeonly character?
I totally did in terms of how intolerant I can be of people sometimes and how much I like to preserve my routine and peace. I’m trying to get better! One thing I’ve learnt from playing Aubrey though is that life is better when you let other people in and allow your life to become more spontaneous.
Your co-star Richard E Grant created a stir in The Celebrity Traitors. Did that surprise you?
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I missed the boat with The Traitors, but even if you don’t watch it, Richard’s moment couldn’t pass you by! For somebody who doesn’t know the rules, even I know you’re not supposed to reveal you’re a Traitor! But it was totally in character for what he brings to things. He has this sense of mischief and subversion of social norms. If you don’t want Richard E Grant to upset the apple cart, don’t sign up Richard E Grant!
Authors
Stephen Kelly
Stephen Kelly is a freelance culture and science journalist. He oversees BBC Science Focus's Popcorn Science feature, where every month we get an expert to weigh in on the plausibility of a newly released TV show or film. Beyond BBC Science Focus, he has written for such publications as The Guardian, The Telegraph, The I, BBC Culture, Wired, Total Film, Radio Times and Entertainment Weekly. He is a big fan of Studio Ghibli movies, the apparent football team Tottenham Hotspur and writing short biographies in the third person.
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