Kit Harington covers the latest issue of Esquire, and as I keep saying, I feel like we’ve seen him mature into a very interesting man. He’s not a boyish whinger anymore. He still Says Words, but most of what he says is pretty interesting. The bulk of Esquire’s cover story was getting Kit to talk about some personal photos from the Game of Thrones set, and his stories were really sweet, especially about how much he loves his costars. There weren’t really any spoilers in this piece, and it’s a great read. Go here and here for the cover story. Some highlights:

On Kristofer Hivju, who plays Tormund: “Kristofer has one of the most amazing faces ever. I think he looks like an Arctic explorer in this. He’s just wonderfully eccentric and became a very, very good friend. What [executive producers] David Benioff and Dan Weiss would do was bring in a new character and see what the actor was doing with it, and depending on whether they liked what the actor was doing, the actor might continue on the show a bit. Kristofer’s a perfect example. Tormund could have been one of those flitting characters who came in and went. But David and Dan loved what Kristofer did with Tormund. Kristofer is Tormund. He’s big and fun and funny, and he’ll give you a bear hug and nearly crush your ribs.”

The Fitzwilliam Bar at their Belfast hotel: “It was like our common room! That, for me, is what a lot of making Thrones was—bar culture. A lot of jobs, everyone goes back to their apartments at the end of the day…But if Thrones had been like that, it wouldn’t have been what it was. I think part of what made it successful was the fact that we got on like a family. Everyone who came in was welcomed into the family. No one was the lead of that family—it was an ensemble. We were just genuinely happy in one another’s company. We made each other laugh. We cared for each other. We picked someone up if they fell. Look, over ten years of anyone’s life, family members die, people have breakdowns, sh-t gets real in people’s lives. All of that can be accentuated in this bottled environment of being on a famous TV show.”

Meeting Emilia Clarke: “I remember the first time I ever saw her. She came into the Fitzwilliam bar. I had been talking to Rich Madden at the bar and he went, “I’ve just met the new Daenerys. She’s gorgeous.” And I was like, “Really? I haven’t met her yet.” And then she came in and I saw her and was like, “Wow.” She takes your breath away when she walks into a room, Emilia.

On the White Walkers: “Whenever I kind of got tired or pissed off with my costume or makeup, I’d look over at Vladimir, who plays the Night King, and think, F–king hell. But they never moan, those boys. They’re all stuntmen. The actors moan, but they don’t moan. You’d always love fighting with stuntmen and really hope that if you got an actor to fight with, they were good. The difference is the stuntmen will always pull their sword at the right time. They’ll be careful of you. They’ll know what they’re doing.”

On criticism of the final season: “How I feel about the show right now is quite defiant. I think no matter what anyone thinks about this season—and 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] judgement on it, in my head they can go f–k themselves. ‘Cause 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. 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–k—because everyone tried their hardest. That’s how I feel. In the end, no one’s bigger fans of the show than we are, and we’re kind of doing it for ourselves. That’s all we could do, really. And I was just happy we got to the end.

[From Esquire Magazine]

People always say that Kristofer Hivju (Tormund) is basically the friendliest and happiest giant ever. I love him and I love his character and I love that Tormund basically got to stick around because Kristofer is such a nice guy. Now I want to drink with Kristofer in a Belfast bar. *sigh*

As for the rest of it… I mean, Kit has every right to be proud of the show and defiant in the face of whatever criticism he or the show might get. His blood, sweat and tears went into it and I get the “go f–k yourself” attitude at this point. I also think that he’s preparing himself – and all of us – for the criticism to rise over the next month as major characters get killed off and everyone starts screaming “HOW WHY NOOOOO.”

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Cover and Instagram courtesy of Esquire.