Posted in: Game Of Thrones, HBO, TV | Tagged: Criminal: UK, eternals, game of thrones, HBO, kit harington, modern love

Game of Thrones: Kit Harington Suffered "Mental Health Difficulties"

It's one thing to play prophesized chosen one Jon Snow on Game of Thrones, but it's another to deal with the superstardom that comes with being arguably HBO's most successful series for actor Kit Harington. It provided enough of a mental and physical strain for him to take a break from what he loved doing following the series' end. Speaking with SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show (via THR), Harington opened up about the strain of the grind of the epic fantasy series toward the end of its eight-season run.

"I went through some mental health difficulties after Thrones, and during the end of Thrones, to be honest," Harington said. "I think it was directly due to the nature of the show and what I had been doing for years." The actor appeared in 62 of the 73 episodes of the David Benioff and D.B. Weiss-created series, which itself is based on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Harington's Jon Snow went from being Ned Stark's (Sean Bean) bastard to rising up the ranks as a Crow in Castle Black for the Night's Watch up to King of the North helping to realize Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) ascension to the iron throne by the end of season eight.

Life After Game of Thrones

Harington told Cagle that he decided to concentrate on himself and was "happy" for doing it. "Just when I was wanting to come back to work the pandemic hit," he said. "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?" Upon his return, the actor appeared in a couple of TV series Modern Love and Criminal: UK, and landed his next major project ironically played the medieval-themed Black Knight aka Dane Whitman in the upcoming Eternals for Marvel expected to hit theaters on November 5.

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