Interview with Kit Harington (Dread Central)Date published: 2012.10.28 Our cast and crew interviews for Silent Hill: Revelation conclude with Kit Harington, star of "Game of Thrones," who plays "Vincent," and the first thing we discussed was what he could - and couldn't - tell us about the character. With Sean Bean’s character in peril, providing all the motivation his daughter, Heather (Adelaide Clemens), needs to head to Silent Hill, one might wonder if Harington's secondary male lead character was there to provide support or maybe act as a love interest. (When the ladies realize Jon Snow from "Game of Thrones" is providing that “support”, they may just drag their friends out to make Silent Hill: Revelation #1 at the box office!) When we asked if Kit could shed some light on his character, he answered with a sly smile. "Yeah, not really," he said. "My character is quite possibly the most complex in this story, and there’s certain surprises that happen within… and he differs from the character in the game sooooo I can’t really say too much." The character comes from the third installment of the video game, if that helps any hardcore game heads out there to flesh this mystery out. For me it’s like saying he is based on a boy pony in the "Friendship Is Magic" cartoon. Anyway, Kit went on to say he loves horror films and always wanted to be in one so this role was a no-brainer. On top of that basic drive, the character has things he has to hide, and that level of complexity was compelling for Kit as well as the director spearheading the project. Kit is a fan! As for his potential role in future horror films, he would love to be dispatched in some gruesome way… so apparently his character means nothing. He just wants to be taken out in a spectacularly hideous way. For that we salute him. As for his taste in horror, Kit leans toward the psychological content. "My favorite horror would probably be The Shining and, weirdly - a lot of people disagree with me on this - The Ring, the American version. Love that film. Everyone says, 'NO, the Japanese version,' but I like the American version better. And Wicker Man! This film shares weird things with that film. It’s all about a strange town where people are a bit off and do horrible things, horrible immoral things. I like that concept of walking into a town where everyone is backwards and twisted. I love how the first one is scary not so much for the jump factor, but it’s more that it really messes with your head… how the whole thing is kind of bizarre and quite surreal. I like ones that have a sort of overall painted on feeling of fear on them." Again the subject of the games arises, and once more we have an admitted rubbish gamer. In this instance Kit didn’t like playing the games particularly because they scared him. At least he’s honest! He returned to the games to do research for this film and didn’t do any better than he fared as a boy because that fear was still there, looking to bite him in the dark. "That walking around and figuring things out and wondering if you’ve done the wrong things… and there not being an absolute, definite direction you have to go in… and people creeping up on you and you don’t know who to trust. That sort of thing really disturbs me, especially when you’re playing it because when you’re watching it, you detach. When you are the character, when you’re playing it on the computer, for some reason it’s far more scary. So I’m not very good at playing Silent Hill!" Our conversation took a detour into "Game of Thrones" territory as the bunch of us interviewing couldn’t help inquiring. Ever the toy geek, I provided the gateway to this line of questioning when I asked if Kit had seen his Jon Snow statue from Dark Horse. He asked how big it turned out, and I showed with my hands an approximation. "I’ve got to get me one of those!" he said. That’s got to be a high point in anyone’s career. I give the middle finger to any celeb who makes that creation process tedious for the company blessing them with little plastic or resin versions of themselves… but I digress. After some brief talk about the promised impactful Season 3 you’ll get after they’ve tested your patience with Season 2, I asked which world, in hindsight, is scarier: Silent Hill or "Game of Thrones"? "They are scary in different ways," he replied. "I know that’s a cop-out, but they are. In my bit in the story in 'Thrones,' the horror element… weirdly, I’m in the most horror element in 'Thrones' and also in this horror movie so they’re not so worlds apart that you may think they are. These are two very different projects and different characters so they never kind of blended, though it was weird being on the set with Sean Bean in a completely different environment and a completely different relationship. It was like, 'We’ve been here before, man! And I dunno where. Weren’t you in that evil gear last time?' He’s a great guy. It’s strange, but as an actor you have to forget something and move on and do the best with the next one." |
