The success of HBO’sGame Of Throneshas elevated it across half a dozen seasons to become the must-see show of the 2010s.
It’s also made stars out of more or less everyone involved with it: Kit Harington is now seen as one of Hollywood’s hottest new leading men, while Gwendoline Christie wound up onstage with Madonna during her Australian tour back in March. Perhaps its most unlikely icon, however, came in the form of Hodor – the seven-foot stable boy capable of saying only his own name, as portrayed by Northern Irish actor Kristian Nairn.
When his character (spoiler alert) met an untimely end during the most recent season, not even Nairn himself could have predicted just how far of a reach it would have. “I was expecting a big reaction, simply because of how well put-together and generally how mind-blowing the whole thing was,” he says. “Not anywhere near as much as it actually got, though. I mean, to hear President Obama talk about how sad it was… it’s pretty unbelievable.”
Thankfully, Nairn has had plenty to keep himself busy with in the wake of his departure from Thrones – primarily, he works as a DJ, and he often performs at themed gigs known as the Rave Of Thrones. This isn’t some sort of celebrity cash-in, mind you – Nairn has been passionate about dance music since well before he caught the acting bug.
“I started out as a pretty prolific club kid – I was always fascinated in what the DJ was doing,” he says. “The conversation between DJ and audience is amazing to witness if it’s done right, and I became hooked on that: making people feel how I felt about music. It’s a precious gift, and one that is too readily dismissed as ‘button-pushing’ by idiots. I will say, though, that a lot of DJs I’ve seen just don’t get it – it seems to be the only reason they do it is showing off and trying to look cool. That just doesn’t work for me. Be a music nerd! Get sweaty and dance around like a lunatic and get lost in your own world while you DJ.”
In recent years, Nairn has also moved into his own original material, as well as remixing other artists. A recent example of this was his cavernous, thudding club rework of ‘Tectonic’, a 2015 single from Sydney’s own Brendan Maclean. “Brendan is incredible,” Nairn enthuses. “Such a talented guy and a great ambassador for Australian music. It was a pleasure to put something together for him. I actually have done a bit of production in the past – I remixed one of the Freemasons singles, ‘Rain Down Love’, back in the day, and I released a track, ‘Up’, last year which received a great response. It’s definitely something I’m very much working towards being a bigger part of my career.”
Nairn returns to Australia this week for another Rave Of Thrones tour, which will see him taking to the biggest rooms he has ever appeared in Down Under – including the Enmore Theatre as part of V MoVement Sydney. With the nights billed as ‘costume compulsory’, the artist formerly known as Hodor is excited to see some extravagant citizens of Westeros among the crowd.
“More people dress up [in Thrones costumes] in Australia than in any other part of the world – I love Australia with all my heart,” says Nairn. “The people remind me in many ways of Irish people, with their crazy self-deprecating sense of humour, great humility and willingness to let their hair down. I always feel at home there, 100 per cent. You can keep your monster spiders, though.”
Rave Of Thrones, featuring Kristian Nairn, as part of V MoVement Sydney 2016, happens on Saturday October 22 atEnmore Theatre.
