The artist formerly known as the King in the North may have been killed off in season three of Game of Thrones (R.I.P. Robb Stark), but the actor still remembers his time on the show fondly.
Richard Madden, who played noble king Robb for three seasons until his untimely death, sat down for an interview with Amy Adams for Variety's Actors on Actors series (see the full interview in the video from Variety above). Madden, who now portrays Police Sergeant David Budd on the hit British TV series The Bodyguard, told the Sharp Objects actress about the grueling difficulty of working on the hit show and made sure to call out his castmates in the process.
But, first, Adams had to have a quick fangirl moment: "First of all, my husband wanted me to make sure and tell you how brilliant you are." We relate so hard right now. Next, Adams, who is next set to star in the movie adaptation of the best-selling novel The Woman in the Window out later this year, asked Madden about his time on the epic HBO show.
"I died at the end of Season 3," Madden said. "It was such a hard thing to finish because from first pilot to my death was five years." (You think it was hard?! Imagine how the fans felt when we saw what they did to your direwolf…just sayin'.)
"But five years was a great time to be on the show," he continued. "It helped me so much with my career and experience. I learned a lot from shooting 30 hours of television. You really start to learn the trade doing that. And then I was thankful to leave it."
Just like his on-screen counterpart, Madden did the heroic thing and gave a shoutout to all of his Game of Thrones co-stars.
"The actors on it now must be 11 years into playing these characters," he told Adams. "Give these guys some medals, because that is a marathon."
For fans who tuned into the post-episode debriefings called The Game Revealed on HBO, you'll know it was more than just a marathon…it was absolute grueling hell to shoot for days, weeks, even months on end.
For Jon Snow, it's just a marathon whose finish line is right back where he started: at the Wall for the Night's Watch. (Womp, womp. A participation medal it is, then?)
