Kit Harington Claims He Was Raised Gender Fluid
Kit Harington opens up about his upbringing and we take alook at his career.
This article is more than 2 years old
Kit Harington, who starred as Jon Show on Game of Thrones for eight seasons, has recently opened up about being raised gender fluid.
In The Telegraph, Kit Harington spoke about his childhood:
“I idolised my mum. I followed her around the house. It was because of her that I wanted to be an actor. She used to take us to the theatre at least twice a week. I asked for a Mighty Max and she bought me a Polly Pocket. I asked for an Action Man and I got a doll – it was very gender-fluid from the word go. And I went with it.”
As we reported last week, Kit Harington also said he has no interest in playing masculine roles, now that he’s done with Game of Thrones:
“I feel that emotionally men have a problem, a blockage and that blockage has come from the Second World War, passed down from grandfather to father to son.” Kit Harington went on to say, “We do not speak about how we feel because it shows weakness, because it is not masculine. Having portrayed a man who was silent, who was heroic, I feel going forward that is a role I don’t want to play anymore. It is not a masculine role that the world needs to see more of.”
Kit Harington In His Youth
Kit Harington was born Christopher Catesby Harington in 1986 in Acton, London to Sir David Robert Harington and Deborah Jane Catesby, a former playwright. He was named after Christopher Marlowe by his mother, but went by Kit, and didn’t discover his full name was Christopher until he was eleven.
While Kit Harington is related to King James I and King Charles II on his father’s side, Harington insists his upbringing was anything but royal. In an interview with the Evening Standard, Harington said of his blue-blood lineage, “My parents didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up. We were comfortable, but I didn’t go to Oxbridge, and yet every American interviewer I get says to me, ‘You’re related to Charles II! Your grandfather was a baronet!’ And it’s infuriating, because that is a part of my history, but you’re trying to turn me into a posh boy and I’m not. I’m adamant that I’m not. My mum’s always telling me, ‘Tell those journalists that you went to state school.”
Before he started his career as an actor, Kit Harington hoped to become a journalist. Yet his interest in acting started when he saw a production of Waiting for Godot at the age of 14. At Worchester Sixth Form College, he studied Drama and Theater, and at 17, after seeing a performance of Ben Whishaw as Hamlet, he was motivated to further study acting. Harington moved back to London and attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he graduated in 2008.
Kit Harington would receive a role in the National Theatre’s adaptation of War Horse while he was still in school. The play won two Olivier Awards and would lead Harington to his next role in the play Posh.
Game of Thrones
Kit Harington’s first onscreen role was as Jon Snow on Game of Thrones, a role which would earn him a Golden Globe nomination in 2020 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, and two Emmy nominations, first for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2016, then for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2019.
Game of Thrones would go on to become one of the most awarded series of all time and one of the largest productions in television history. Over the run of the show, it would receive 160 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning 59 Emmys, and would be nominated for Outstanding Drama Series for eight consecutive years. The show would win the Outstanding Drama Series in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019.
As one of the stars of HBO’s massive hit, Kit Harington became one of the highest-paid actors in television history when in Season Seven, the stars of the series received 2 million pounds per episode.
Kit Harington’s Other Roles
It might be hard to follow up a debut role as gigantic as that of Jon Snow on Game of Thrones, but Kit Harington has certainly done a decent job trying to continue with solid work. In 2012, Harington made his film debut in Silent Hill: Revelation, but then in 2014, starred in four films: Paul W.S. Anderson’s Pompeii, Testament of Youth and Seventh Son – both co-starring Alicia Vikander – and How to Train Your Dragon 2 as the voice of Eret.
Since then, Kit Harington has cut back on doing quite as many roles but has still done strong work. In 2018, he starred in Xavier Dolan’s The Death & Life of John F. Donovan, and in 2019, returned to the How to Train Your Dragon universe in The Hidden World.
Kit Harington has also shown his comedic side in recent years. In 2015, he co-starred with Andy Samberg in the hilarious HBO tennis mockumentary, 7 Days in Hell, and in 2019, he would host Saturday Night Live for the first time.
Post-Game of Thrones
Soon after Game of Thrones concluded, Kit Harington checked himself into a wellness retreat for “stress” and “personal issues,” with some reports saying that the decision was directly tied to the negative public response Game of Thrones’ final season received.
In 2011, Kit Harington started a relationship with his Game of Thrones co-star Rose Leslie, and the pair were married in 2018. Last month, Leslie posed for People Magazine and revealed that she was pregnant with the couple’s first child.
As for Kit Harrington’s upcoming projects, the only work he has lined up as of now is Dane Whitman in Marvel’s upcoming Eternals. Harington recently said in discussing his latest role, “I’m trying to choose things as far away from Jon Snow as possible, but I’m playing a superhero and he’s got a sword.”
At only 33, Kit Harrington is still very much a rising actor with a huge career ahead of him. With one gigantic role behind him and his recent decision to move away from the types of roles he’s played before, it will be fascinating to see where Harington’s career leads him from here.
