Kit Harington opened up about the process of filming Game of Thrones' dragon scenes in a new behind-the-scenes video
The characters on Game of Thrones get into plenty of dangerous situations — and it turns out the actors do, too!
In a new behind-the-scenes video from HBO, Kit Harington opened up about filming his most epic scene yet: Jon Snow (spoiler alert!) riding a dragon for the first time. The scene, from the first episode of the new season, had been eagerly anticipated by fans as proof of his Targaryen bloodline.
The 32-year-old actor had to film the soaring scene on the back of a “buck” that functions like a mechanical bull. (The visual effects of the dragon were added in afterwards.)
Harington’s costar, Emilia Clarke, has been filming these scenes for years, but it was Harington’s first time trying to maneuver the machine — and he says he almost lost a body part in the process.
“Buck work is not easy,” Harington said. “There was a bit where Jon almost falls off the dragon — swings round really violent like this — and my right ball got trapped, and I didn’t have time to say stop.”
“I was being swung ’round,” he continued. “In my head, I thought, ‘This is how it ends, on this buck swinging me round by my testicles. Literally.'”
“Sorry, probably too much information,” the actor joked.
RELATED: The Game of Thrones Celebrity Cameos You Might Have Missed While Watching the Series
Harington also said it was hard for him to portray Jon’s affection for Clarke’s character during the scene, which was filmed in front of a green screen.
“It’s one bit where you’ve got to convey your love for each other and you’re in a green box on a buck,” he said.
RELATED: Kit Harington Tells Game of Thrones Critics to ‘Go F— Themselves’
The season 8 premiere on Sunday night was the most-watched entertainment program of the year, bringing in 17.4 million viewers across multiple platforms, according to Entertainment Weekly.
It became HBO’s largest telecast in its 46-year history, but with all of those viewers there are bound to be some critics — and Harington addressed them in a new interview published on Monday.
“I don’t mean to sound mean about critics here, but whatever critic spends half an hour writing about this season and makes their [negative] judgment on it, in my head, they can go f— themselves,” he told Esquire.
“I know how much work was put into this. I know how much people cared about this. I know how much pressure people put on themselves and I know how many sleepless nights, working or otherwise, people had on this show,” Harington went on in the interview. “Because they cared about it so much. Because they cared about the characters. Because they cared about the story. Because they cared about not letting people down.”
“Now if people feel let down by it, I don’t give a f—, because everyone tried their hardest,” he added.
Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.