Kit Harington Has Quite a Few Fears, But He Only Had to Face 1 of Them on ‘Game of Thrones’

Kit Harington could soon be returning to the role of Jon Snow. If his Game of Thrones spinoff Snow gets picked up by HBO, Harington will grow his hair out once again and go back to playing the character that made him a household name.

Harington has said that starring as Jon Snow on Game of Thrones will likely be “the most important job” of his life. And playing the iconic character allowed him to face one of his biggest fears.

Kit Harington faced his biggest fear while filming the ‘Battle of the Bastards’

The Battle of the Bastards was a spectacle of an episode that aired during season 6, featuring Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton facing off in a battle for control of Winterfell. The episode required 500 extras and stuntmen, 600 crew members, and 25 days to shoot. 

They did use some visual effects to duplicate the extras and show arrows flying. But, their use of CGI was extremely limited. Instead, the majority of the action on-screen in that episode of Game of Thrones was done in real life.

During the battle, Jon brandished Longclaw and was prepared to fight to the death. And that’s almost what happened. He was trampled by his own forces and nearly suffocated under a group of his own men who were crawling on top of him. 

Filming this scene, says Harrington, made him face one of his biggest fears — claustrophobia.

The ‘Game of Thrones’ star is ‘mortally afraid of crowds’

During an interview with The Belfast Telegraph, Harington talked about filming that crowd scene in the Battle of the Bastards episode and how it forced him to face one of his fears.

“I’ve got a few fears, spiders being one of them, but the worst is my claustrophobia – I’m mortally afraid of crowds. I panic. It was one of the most terrifying things and most uncomfortable – 15 bearded Irishmen crushing you,” Harington explained.

“There was a moment where he could’ve just lay down and let go of the hell he’s in, and sleep, like drowning, but it cuts to the heart of Jon, that he fights his way up to the top.”

Kit Harington also has a fear of flying

Harington said that he is also a “nervous flier” with a bit of OCD and a ritual he goes through every time he gets on a plane. He says that before he boards, he has to “touch the outside of the plane three times.”

“I’ve gotten worse actually. I used to love it, but now I imagine being 30,000 feet in the air. Each time I fly it feels more unnatural. I get more jittery… It’s bizarre. I used to love flying, and since I’ve been doing Thrones and traveling over to America a lot, I get really nervous about it and I don’t know why,” Harington confessed to Condé Nast Traveler.

While crowds and flying are pretty common fears, one of Harington’s more unique fears comes in the form of video games. Harington once told MTV: “I’m not good at playing those things. I used to get terrified of Doom, and when I played this, I was pretty terrified of it. I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to computer games.”

All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are available on HBO Max.