In this week’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo grows out his handlebar mustache and puts on a southern accent to discuss “Blood for Dust” with star Kit Harington (“Game of Thrones,” “Eternals”). The movie follows a struggling salesman with a troubled criminal past who is pulled back into a string of crimes by a former colleague, leading to a trail of blood…and dust. The film is written and directed by Rod Blackhurst (“Amanda Knox” “Night Swim”) and also stars Scoot McNairy, Josh Lucas, Nora Zehetner, Ethan Suplee, Stephen Dorff, and more.
During the interview, Harington discusses being drawn to “Blood for Dust” because director Rod Blackhurst didn’t want him to play Cliff, the good-hearted family man with a troubled past (played by Scoot McNairy in the film), but his more dubious former colleague, Ricky.
“I felt like I’d played ‘Cliffs’ before— the kind of classic protagonist role in that type of movie, and I actually think that Cliff, in many ways in the movie is far more dirty and has far more sin than a classic protagonist, or a classic hero in the piece,” Harington said. “But, for me, it was it was a chance to play the antagonistic right-hand man, which I don’t generally get offered, and Rod [Blackhurst] came to me and said, ‘I think you’d be great for this,” and that ‘Acting is all about taking risks.’ And that was when I was like, ‘I think I can do this.’ Maybe if I grow a massive mustache and pretend to be American—maybe I can.”
Harington and Blackhurst then went to work on the character of Ricky, creating a backstory that the audience never really sees but is ever-present in Harington’s performance throughout the film.
“The backstory we kind of created for him, because I felt I needed it, ended up sort of influencing one of the speeches at the end where he talks about this kind of neglect that he had as a kid,” Harington said. “He was raised in front of the TV. So he was raised by these guys who had these big mustaches, whether they were cops or bad guys. Like, that’s his viewpoint of the world. That was his father and mother—the TV and these guys on TV. And that’s how he’s made up what the world is, what it’s about, and what you have to get from it. And that helped me come to him from a place of real empathy. And actually, it’s all show—the mustache, the guns, the whole thing is show. And it’s a whole game for him. It’s play. It’s like he doesn’t want Cliff to ruin it. He doesn’t want him to leave.”
Yes, any conversation with Kit Harington inevitably leads to Jon Snow, the “Game of Thrones” character he played for eight seasons. Years back, it was confirmed that he was involved in developing a spin-off series based on what happened to Jon Snow after he returned to The Wall. Sadly, it seems that is no longer moving forward.
“Right now, it’s not [moving forward], no,” Harington admitted. “And it’s one of the reasons I didn’t or haven’t really spoken about it—is that it was in development. And we kind of wanted the space to develop it & see if it was worth doing. HBO came to me a number of years back about whether I wanted to do it. And I sort of said, ‘Yeah, let’s let’s give it a go.’ And then we all tried and we couldn’t find something that we thought was worth doing. And the last thing we want to do is make something bad. We don’t want to do it unless it’s worth it. But that’s not to say it won’t happen at some point. There’s always the option to if it feels like we can land on the right idea, but at the moment, nothing’s being developed.”
Most fans know Harington for his heroic portrayal of Jon Snow, but less know about the other fantasy role that Kit almost took on just as “Game of Thrones” was getting started—“King Arthur.” Warner Bros. had green-lit not just one film but a trilogy for director David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”), which would have starred Harington as Arthur, Joel Kinnaman as Lancelot, Gary Oldman as Merlin, Marion Cotillard as Morgana, and Liam Neeson as Galahad. Ultimately, Warner Bros. didn’t think they could sell a movie starring Harington and Kinnaman as leads, and the project was shelved. Looking back, Harington is thankful for the cancellation for a very good reason.
“I think it was probably a blessing that it never happened,” Harington said, remembering the scrapped project. “At the time, I remember it was me and Joel Kinnaman were playing Arthur and Lancelot and it was all set to go, and then it got pulled for various reasons. And it was a really good idea. I remember thinking it was crushing at the time, but then ‘Thrones’ kind of took off, so it was sort of drifting into the background of this massive juggernaut that was ‘Thrones.’ And actually, can you imagine if I did do it and I was spending six months doing Jon Snow and then six months playing Arthur? I think it was a real blessing, actually.”
The Playlist Presents – Kit Harington’s Film & TV Recommendation Playlist:
Film:
1.) “Heat”
2.) “Collateral”
3.) “The Insider”
TV:
1.) “Three Body Problem”
“Blood for Dust” is in theaters on April 19th. You can listen to the full interview below.
