TRIGGER WARNING: This article discusses suicide.
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington has opened up about battling alcoholism and depression in a raw interview.
In a candid interview in The Sunday Times, Harington – who has now been sober for two years – detailed how he’d battled alcohol abuse issues while filming the hugely popular series.
“Things that have happened to me since Thrones ended, and that were happening during Thrones, were of a pretty traumatic nature and they did include alcohol,” he explained.
“You get to a place where you feel like you are a bad person, you feel like you are a shameful person. And you feel that there’s no way out, that’s just who you are. And getting sober is the process of going, ‘No, I can change,’” Harington continued.
It comes following Harington revealing he experienced mental health issues following his work on Game of Thrones.
Asked if he had felt suicidal during this time, Harington replied, “I will give you an answer to that question: the answer is yes. Yes of course. I went through periods of real depression where I wanted to do all sorts of things.”
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He added that he hoped by opening up about his depression and alcoholism will “maybe help someone, somewhere,” adding, “I definitely don’t want to be seen as a martyr or special. I’ve been through something, it’s my stuff. If it helps someone, that’s good.”
It comes following a recent interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, where Harington shared that it was the “nature of the show” that affected him mentally and that he’s really happy that he took time to “really concentrate” on himself after the show.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Harington said in the interview, “I went through some mental health difficulties after Thrones, and during the end of Thrones, to be honest. I think it was directly due to the nature of the show and what I had been doing for years.”
The actor also went on to say that after taking a break, he was ready to get working again, however the pandemic through a spanner in the works, halting industries all over the world.
However, he did recently film an episode of Modern Love, which he reportedly did just for fun.
Harington said, “Just when I was wanting to come back to work the pandemic hit.”
He continued, “You don’t have to live in that intense place all the time. Why don’t you do something that takes the weight off? Why don’t you do something fun?”
Harington is set to debut back into the wonderful world of film as a part of the Marvel Universe with the movie, Eternals which we should be able to expect in cinemas on November 5th later this year.
For more on this topic, follow the Film & TV Observer.
