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Game of Thrones has masterfully portrayed the really heinous villains. While the series reveled in gray morality most of the time – even Kit Harington’s Jon Snow had a few morally ambiguous moments – there were a few genuinely incorrigible characters. King Joffrey Baratheon was one of these; indifferent to the fate of others, incredibly cruel and thirsty for power, but at the same time snotty, he was practically created for the audience to hate him.
For Jack Gleason, the role brought him widespread acclaim, but he recently revealed that the role was more draining than fans might have thought and forced him to reconsider whether acting was his calling.
It really came down to the fact that I just didn’t enjoy acting as much as I used to. For some reason, I don’t know, it got a little mechanical and less passionate when I started doing Game of Thrones.
Gleason also noted that he had no problem producing the series:
I don’t think it has anything to do with how the shooting was done. I think when it became less of a recreation and more of a profession, it put more pressure on acting itself and made it a little less enjoyable.
Fans have sometimes blamed the show for Gleason’s departure from the limelight. After the disappointing eighth season of Game of Thrones, fans found a lot of problems with the production, but it doesn’t look like Gleason has parted ways with the series for that reason. On the contrary, he simply lost his passion for acting. Though he’s been acting since he was a kid, Game of Thrones was Gleason’s biggest role ever, and he’s likely faced new pressures he hadn’t experienced before.
Gleason’s performance was masterful, Joffrey was so brutal that fans celebrated his death in the fourth season. However, Gleason is reputedly quite friendly and intelligent. Unfortunately, fans often confuse the character and the actor too often.
In the Red Wedding reversal, fans captured their jubilant reaction to Gleason’s departure from the series. Unfortunately, some of these fans are reportedly harassing Gleason due to his association with the character. There is speculation that this is one of the reasons why Gleason chose to retire from the limelight (although he didn’t say so), which would be unfortunate. However, Gleason appears to be happy with his decision, and in the end, that’s all that matters.
