Yikes! Kit Harington Says He Nearly Lost a Testicle While Filming the ‘GoT’ Dragon Scene

Sure, riding a Game of Thrones dragon might sound like a bucket-list item, but Kit Harington just confirmed that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, the 32-year-old actor revealed that he nearly lost a testicle (yep) while filming the popular HBO series.

The network recently released a behind-the-scenes video for season eight, which features Harington describing a near accident on set. Here’s what you need to know:

During season eight, episode one of GoT, Jon Snow (Harington) rides one of Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) dragons. In real life, the “dragon” is actually just a mechanical-bull-like device that is transformed into a living creature by the show’s CGI team.

Although Clarke has ridden the structure many times, Harington’s introduction to the machine didn’t go as planned. When the actor mounted the “dragon,” he realized that it wasn’t made for male body parts.

“Buck work is not easy. I think what sums up the buck for me was there was a bit where Jon almost falls off,” he said. “The dragon swings around really violently, like this, and my right ball got trapped, and I didn’t have time to say ‘Stop!’ And I was being swung around.”

Harington went on to say that he thought he lost it entirely, adding, “In my head, I thought, ‘This is how it ends, on this buck, swinging me around by my testicles, literally.’ Sorry. Probably too much information.”

The good news is he confirmed that no testicles were (permanently) harmed in the making of this episode.

Phew, that was close. Game of Thrones airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on HBO.