Kit Harington is ready to talk.
Harington is finished playing dead.
Is Jon Snow dead?
Credit: MARC HOM for EW
Actors typically only have to perform on camera.
Harington played a role that involved much of his personal life.
The tale of Jon Snows death and rebirth begins five years ago.
HBO
In interviews, Martin teased that the character wasnt necessarily gone.
The light goes out of his open eyes as we fade on season 5.
That sounded awfully permanent.
HBO
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY:How did you feel when you read the scene where Jon was killed off?
KIT HARINGTON:I thought that would have been an awful way to go.
I wasnt ready to say goodbye toThrones.
I dont mind the idea of dying in this series, I just felt like his journey wasnt done.
EW: Didnt you want to call up the producers and ask, Hey, am I really dead?
KH:I never ask them anything.
KH:I wont ask.
And I think they left me hanging for a bit just to see if I would ask.
EW:When did you find out the truth?
KH:It was one of the first days after we started filming [season 5].
I was with the whole cast, doing the pessimistic thing.
I was saying, I really think this is it, I think Im dead.
Its been a great ride.
And they were like, No, foff, youre not!
And then we started theorizing…
Ever since Snow died in Martins book, theories have circulated about how he might return.
Jon could warg into his direwolf, Ghost, like Bran has done with his direwolf.
Or would I be dead as a zombie guy, and that would be sas well.
His characters parentage has been one of the biggest mysteries hanging over the shows mythology.
And then, between camera setups, Benioff and Weiss asked Harington to go for a walk.
Harington recalls feeling nervous.
But for months afterward, only the three of them would know what was truly said.
Now youre going to know this and you cant tell anybody.
Not your mom, not your dad, not your family not anybody.You cant tell anybody.
Okay, Harington said.
You are back next season, the producer told him.
Melisandre brings you back.
And youve got a sload to do next season.
Youre going to be doing a lot.
Harington felt a surge of relief.
I was incredibly happy, he recalls.
As Harington rejoined his castmates, however, something shifted.
Harington forced himself to put on a downcast face.
And he began an impromptu performance that he would have to repeat, over and over again.
EW:What did you say?
KH:I went back into the room with all the Nights Watch guys.
Going in, knowing this thing, they had all seen me go on this walk.
And I had to say, Yeah, Im dead.
I had to lie to all my friends.
EW:What was that like for you?
KH:At first I thought I would find it fun.
This will be a fun game.
But I had to lie to a lot of close friends and cast members and crew.
I dont like lying.
The longer it went, the more I felt like I was betraying them.
EW: You literally didnt tell your family?
KH:I couldnt keep it from them my mum, dad, and brother.
I just said, I am still inThrones, but dont tell anyone.
Because otherwise what youre saying to your family is, financially, This is where the money stops fromThrones.
EW: What about your girlfriend, Rose Leslie, who played Ygritte?
KH:I told her from early on.
In fact, Dan said to David, Hes going to tell Rose, isnt he?
She was allowed to know.
EW:And the rest of the cast?
KH:At the end of making season 5, genuinely no one knew.
He told me to foff from the start, Harington recalls.
Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth, had suspicions as well.
Others bought the fib completely.
He was like, Look, this is it, Im done, she recalls.
I thought he genuinely thought that [at the time].
I dont know if he was bullsting me or not.
Harington allows himself a smile at that one.
That made me chuckle.
She bought it hook, line, and sinker.
The behind-the-scenes charade came to a head on the set of the season 5 finale.
An actors last day can be highly emotional.
There are speeches, hugs, drinks, and gifts.
He would later call that night one of my worst experiences onThrones.
Director David Nutter was running the set.
As it turns out, the director had no clue Snow was coming back until later.
All I was told is Jon Snow is dead, Nutter says.
It was very clear.
You could have done aPrincess Bridething hes mostlydead, hes justbarelydead.
But the show has shown a precedent for the Lord of Light resurrecting a dead person before.
So if were going to kill him, were going to really kill him.
The decision was made to make it explicitly clear he was killed.
Then he called up the actor to address the crowd.
I had to do a fake goodbye speech, Harington says.
It was like being at my own funeral.
Its helpful to understand a couple of things about Harington here.
Like most performers, he seeks attention.
He landed the starring role in the London stage adaptation ofWar Horsewhile still in drama school.
But unlike some actors, he dreads feeling inauthentic.
Im not a showman, Harington says.
Im not a natural salesman.
Im not good at that.
Im kind of a bumbling English buffoon at times.
A strong theatrical performance doesnt feel like a lie, it feels like truth.
Nutter called the speech heartfelt and quite powerful.
It was the worst acting Ive ever done, and thats saying something, Harington says of his speech.
I couldnt do a big weepy I love you.
Some of them bought it, some didnt.
EW: And after the speech?
KH:I got the fout.
EW:What was hardest about that?
KH:There are a lot of story lines that revolve around Jon.
I did end up letting people in, slowly.
KH: And then I have to really start stringing you along, which Im not comfortable with.
I care about the show.
I dont want spoilers.
EW: What was your reaction to the way fans and the media erupted after the finale?
KH:I was most worried people werent going to buy it.
Or they were going to watch it and go, Meh, who cares?
Its not as sad as the Red Wedding.
We dont love you as much as those characters.
Theres something inside you where you want them to be sad.
I wanted them to believe that Im dead.
And for the most part, a lot of them did.
They had a love for the character, and they believed he could be gone.
I was glad it had the impact that we aimed for.
Jon Snow died June 14, 2015.
HBOs overnight ratings were the biggest in the shows history, with 8.1 million watching.
But as a tidal wave of fandom grief arose, a new cycle of misdirection began.
Even notedThronesfan President Obama asked.
Nutter dutifully replied, Hes dead.
(Wondered Weiss later: If Obama really wanted to know, couldnt he just ask the CIA?)
But nobody had a high-wire moment that could have gone more awry than HBO programming president Michael Lombardo.
Yet when Lombardo read the season 5 finale script, he didnt know Snow was going to return either.
I responded as the fans did with grief and shock, Lombardo says.
At the time, the request didnt seem like a big deal.
Its one thing to ask for that, hypothetically, before the world has experienced it, Lombardo says.
You go, Okay, we can do that.
Weve killed off main characters before.
But the death of Jon Snow resonated.
I havent been in a meeting or a dinner party without people asking me about Jon Snow.
Lombardo maintained a poker face, but secretly he was relieved at the reporters phrasing.
Dead is dead is dead is dead, Lombardo said.
Everything Ive seen, heard, and read, Jon Snow is indeed dead.
Cunningham puts it best: Everyone is fing asking the wrong question!
Is Jon Snow dead?
Yes, hes dead!
The question is: Is he going tostaydead.'
Whether Jon Snow would remain dead, well… Nobody asked methatquestion, Lombardo says.
For the producers, determining how much time Jon Snow would spend as a lifeless corpse provoked some discussion.
We wanted to let his death sink in and let the other characters play that emotion.
Plus, Kit probably would have murdered us!
His role was huge, with more shooting days than ever before.
Yet the name Jon Snow didnt appear anywhere.
Instead a new name was used throughout production: LC, which stood for Lord Commander.
The showrunners made it clear that nobody was allowed to say Jon Snow, including them.
Still, how could the sprawling, globe-trotting production possibly keep Haringtons role a secret?
Everybody walks around with a camera now.
We knew once Kit starting flying back to Belfast, people are going to take pictures.
As it turned out, the deception held longer than any of them had predicted.
EW:You cut your hair shorter after the finale, which caused a stir.
KH:I wanted to sell it a bit more.
I know this hairstyle is very synonymous with the character.
I wanted to appear with shorter hair straightaway so it would sell the lie.
KH:I guess.
People are like, Are you dead?
But do you really want me to tell you?
Its a rhetorical question theyre asking.
KH:I was put into a different apartment.
But they couldnt put me on a private jet back and forth to Belfast.
Id go stir-crazy if I tried to stay in all the time.
We care very much, but we also realize this is not life or death.
Sure enough, as season 6 started filming, Harington was quickly spotted.
Still, fans were relentless.
It was dangerous to have dinner with Kit anywhere, says Melisandre actress Carice van Houten.
The guy has to eat and live, but we tried our best to hide him.
Haringtons costars endured fan pressure too.
Then he offered me the handle and said, Oh, no-no-no!
I just want a photo you hold the knife to me, Teale says.
I got used to that.
Surely the ruse was up, right?
Unless were shooting a weirdly expensive flashback sequence to a battle that Jon was never in.
So there [were] still large numbers of people wondering, Is he or isnt he?
For the resurrection sequence, Snow lay naked on the table while Melisandre washed his body.
It took forever to resurrect him, forever!
It was such an important scene, we shot it from so many angles.
I think I washed his body 50 times.
There would be a lot of people who would be very jealous.
Harington had no complaints.
His days on theThronesset usually involve exhausting action scenes in freezing cold.
It was such an easy two episodes, I loved it.
The actor had one startling moment, however.
Harington fell asleep on the table, then woke up in the middle of a scene.
For a minute, his show life and real life seemed more blurred than ever.
You know how terrifying it is when you wake up and you dont know where you are?
Imagine waking up in theGame of Thronesworld.
Its like a nightmare.
But on the series, the Jon Snow who wakes up has changed dramatically.
EW: How does death change Jon Snow?
He needs to change.
Theres a brilliant line when Melisandre asks: What did you see?
And he says: Nothing, there was nothing at all.
That cuts right to our deepest fear, that theres nothing after death.
And thats the most important line in the whole season for me.
Jons never been afraid of death, and thats made him a strong and honorable person.
He realizes something about his life now: He has to live it, because thats all there is.
Hes been over the line and theres nothing there.
And that changes him.
It literally puts the fear of God into him.
He doesnt want to die ever again.
But if he does, he doesnt want to be brought back.
EW: How big a season is this for Jon moving forward?
KH:Its the biggest season for him so far.
Theres one episode this season, which is Jons story, thats the most epic episode weve done.
EW: And how relieved will you be when this all goes public?
KH:Im very happy this is going to be out in the open.
Its nice inThronesto be the center of attention for a whole off-season.
In a muddy field, Jon Snow is fighting a dozen men.
The actor is a whirlwind.
And as exhausting as this is, Harington always wants one more take.
Hes become phenomenal at it, Benioff says.
Theres something great about watching Kit do a 60-second take where hes actually doing all the moves.
Weiss drily agrees: He might actually be of serious value in a medieval army.
Harington takes the physical part of his job as seriously as he does protecting the shows secrets.
(Cunningham quips, Hes just doing that to annoy the rest of us.)
Yet even the toughest heroes cant handle dozens of enemies by themselves.
During one scene, Jon Snow is overwhelmed, and he goes down swinging.
Fighters pile atop him.
Harington is pressed into thick, soupy mud and crawling bugs.
Harington refuses to say his safe word (banana) to stop the pummeling.
But when the scene ends, he seems more winded than usual.
TheGame of Thronesstar staggers away, giving a weary smile: Become an actor, they said…
