Teenaged Game Of Thrones star unfazed by sex and violence on show
Game Of Thrones actor Isaac Hempstead Wright had 'embarrassing' talk with mum about sex scenes on the hit TV show
When it comes to the violence on Game Of Thrones, this teen actor's mother was "quite chill".
The sex, on the other hand, earned him an uncomfortable talk.
English actor Isaac Hempstead Wright, 16, told M in an interview yesterday: "My mum being my mum, had a horribly embarrassing lecture about sex with me every time there was a sex scene.
"So that opened up sex education in a surreal way!"
In Game Of Thrones, Wright plays Bran Stark, the crippled son of the late Eddard Stark (Sean Bean), who was the head of House Stark and Lord Paramount of the North.
EYE-OPENING
Being a child actor on the award-winning series must have been an eye-opening experience. The bespectacled teenager has had this gig since he was 10, and was given an introduction to the show's graphic sex and violence very early on.
In the pilot episode, Bran is pushed off an abandoned tower by Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau)after accidentally stumbling upon the knight having sex with his own sister, Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey).
Getting a behind-the-scenes look at how production crews make on-screen gore believable has demystified the whole process for Wright.
"Now when I see other shows, when someone gets shot or whatever, I go 'Oh, they have a blood pack there'. In a way, it has made scary shows less scary. That is quite nice," he said.
Wright was in town to promote Game Of Thrones' sixth season, which premieres on HBO (StarHub TV Ch 601) on April 25 at 9am, with a same-day encore telecast at 9pm.
On Saturday, he attended a fan meet session at Ion Orchard at the Game Of Thrones Experience: World Of Westeros event. The exhibition, which is on till tomorrow, showcases actual weapons used in the series and even the infamous Iron Throne.
Dressed casually in black pants and with his grey shirt untucked, Wright was friendly when he met the local media at the Grand Hyatt Singapore yesterday and comfortably answered questions that were posed to him.
However, it wasn't all work and no play for the actor on his maiden trip here.
He visited the Singapore Zoo on Monday and tried hawker fare like chicken rice, satay, ice kacang and roti prata, but his favourite dish was the laksa from Katong Laksa.
"That was delicious, I really like that it was spicy in waves. I don't know if that's just my weird tastebuds," he said. "You guys eat a lot! But that just suits me!"
He even joked that laksa would do really well in the freezing north of Westeros, the mythical continent where most of Game Of Thrones is set.
"The spicy soup (would be) good for warming us up," he said.
As for what's in store for Bran in the upcoming season, it appears that he'll go through a period of discovery in terms of his abilities.
The boy is, after all, a Warg, a person who can enter the minds of people and animals and control their actions.
In previous seasons, he has never been able to control his powers properly.
In the sixth season, however, Wright revealed that Bran is taught how to do it by a man known as the Three-Eyed Raven, played by Swedish actor Max von Sydow.
However, he doesn't know what Bran will eventually be able to achieve.
"I think he knows his powers will be crucial because in that world, the balance of magical powers is very much stacked against the humans," he said.
"I hope Bran will be able to add to that part of the story."
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