Game of Thrones star, 21-year-old Jack Gleeson, says that he doesn’t want to make a career out of professional acting. Gleeson is a student in Dublin, and now wants to focus on his theatre company, studies, and doing relief work with charities.
Gleeson plays the deplorable King Joffrey Baratheon on HBO’s hit series, Game of Thrones. The series is based on a set of books by author George R.R. Martin, and has already been aired for three seasons.
Jack Gleeson, a.k.a., King Joffrey, is an Irish actor and student at Trinity College in Dublin. His studies there, philosophy and theology, have him “re-evaluating” what he wants to do with his life, as well as his work with an aid agency.
The actor recently returned from a mission trip to Haiti with the charity agency Goal. He now says that doing charity work is where he would like to focus his time after Game of Thrones, and his acting stint, ends.
Gleeson was just 17 when he auditioned for the role of King Joffrey, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that his life interests and goals have changed. However, the public isn’t used to, and doesn’t understand, someone who doesn’t want the life of fame and fortune. Many fans of Thrones are livid about Gleeson’s lack of interest in the art.
The Trinity student recently told Dublin’s The Independent, “It was always a recreation beforehand, but when I started doing Game of Thrones perhaps the reality was made too real for me. The lifestyle that comes with being an actor in a successful TV show isn’t something I gravitate towards.”
Gleeson also says that his character doesn’t make for an easy character to like, or a difficult one to give up. The actor said of King Joffrey, “In terms of redeeming qualities, there wouldn’t be many.”
The series is expected to return to HBO in the spring of next year.
Main image courtesy @GameOfThrones via Twitter.