There is no mistaking the perfect casting of Kit Harrington for the role of Jon Snow in the "Game of Thrones" series, so much so that imagining another actor to play the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch would simply feel wrong.
But now, it has been revealed that a villain from the same show almost got the part. In an interview with The Telegraph, Iwan Rheon, the actor who plays the despicable and sadistic Ramsay Snow/Bolton was one of the last few contenders for the role of Jon Snow.
"I auditioned for the pilot of Game of Thrones, and was down to the last two for Jon Snow, so I guess they knew me. But Ramsay is the complete polar opposite. In my mind, I secretly thought it was Ramsay," he shared.
In the end, producers thought he would be better suited for the role of Ramsay, and Rheon was right. But because the show's production was held under close wraps, his character was simply named "Boy" so as not to reveal plans to introduce Ramsay in later seasons.
"I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone about it from the beginning of filming to the broadcast of the end of season three, I was supposed to say to everyone, 'Oh my character is Boy,' which was really embarrassing," he said.
Rheon believes that his character is completely nuts, and added that some of the things he did on the show really disturbed him. For season three, Ramsay did a lot of horrible things to Theon Greyjoy and it was so gruesome that Rheon had to constantly remind himself that it's all fictional.
"Some of the things he does really disturb me. I worry about the preparation, it's not like learning it at home, it's 'Oh god, this is horrible.' Then gearing myself up to do it, and then when I get on the set to do it, in my trailer, that day, I really don't want to do it. And then you've got to slap yourself and say 'Come on, it's not real, it's not real, just do it,'" he said.
Rheon described Ramsay as a hybrid of Dennis the Menace and the Joker. He knew that his character was a bad apple from the very start, but he finds him intriguing nonetheless.
"What's weird about Ramsay is there is obviously something wrong with him and there always has been. I don't think you can learn that kind of behaviour," Rheon said. "Then when his dad comes into it you realize he's got daddy issues! Very interesting, I find him fascinating, he's a really strange person."
