TitanCon interview: “The Horrible” Isaac Hempstead-Wright

Yep, you heard it from us first. He’s horrible!

FaB here, bringing the last of the TitanContent for 2013: my sit-down interview with the very engaging Isaac Hempstead-Wright! So…

Well, okay, I guess context is everything. Here’s the “Horrible” part:

Editing, clearly, was at an absolute minimum. (Sure, I guess when all’s said and done, I really turn out to be the horrible one!)

Okay, I’ll be real: Isaac’s a great young guy with a rather impish sense of humor. He’s a different kind of Brit! I honestly don’t know if there is a more open, genuinely nice Game of Thrones actor. And some may say his seeming lack of guile or pretentiousness is simply due to his young age, but…

I get the feeling he’s going to be a different kind of cat overall, as the years roll by. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Something else refreshing about him: he’s not afraid to ask questions of us! So any interview ends up feeling like a conversation more than an interview; I’ll admit at times I forgot there was an actual interview going on. (Obviously!)

He wasn’t quite at an Art Parkinson-level of hyped up, but TitanCon clearly had him energized. As usual, his mum was very cool. There’s an amused quality they both share, and it’s in the eyes—I want to call it a “twinkle,” but maybe that’s slightly off, because it’s warmer. Both have the ability to make a person (even a raving lunatic fan) feel very welcomed.

I regret not getting a picture of the badass black leather jacket he was wearing before the interview. The kid knows how to dress. Or… well, I don’t know if I can even refer to him as “kid” any more, though “young man” sounds too stiff—and Isaac is anything but stiff. He can be animated, laughing at a whim, and even when he sits still (and proper) you get the feeling it’s only the briefest respite before another minor explosion of kinetic energy makes him flail about.. sometimes verging on muppetlike.

(And this isn’t to be unkind! Far from it. Isaac is as lacking in self-absorption as any young teen could be. He doesn’t appear to be self-conscious at all, which is actually remarkable for a teen, since most put on airs to guard their insecurities. Isaac is the sort who would just come out and tell you his insecurities, and cheerfully.)

Some people tiptoe through life, filled with various shades of dread; Isaac seems to bound through like a wild young wolf pup, heedless of the obstacles.

I sometimes wonder if he knows exactly how hard his job is. (Though from the interview you could tell he certainly realized being rained on for twelve hours at a time wasn’t easy!) But I think he just… he’s able to focus, channel emotion, and it appears for us onscreen. Bam!

(It also doesn’t hurt that he’s had some fantastic actors there on set to mentor him. I can only imagine the tricks of the trade he learned from, say, Donald Sumpter.)

I don’t know precisely where Bran’s story will end (I have various theories, some quite dark), but I know this: Game of Thrones has commissioned the right tool for the task. Wherever it goes, and whatever needs to happen… man, I am glad they found Isaac.

A strange lad! But he’s our kind of strange! And yeah… he’s kinda… really cool.

Thanks to Isaac, and to his mum, and to TitanCon for making this possible!

Fire And Blood: And that wraps up our TitanContent for the year. I cannot reiterate how freaking fantastic these intimate cons are, especially the ones specifically dedicated to Game of Thrones—and double-especially Belfasts’s TitanCon. PEOPLE! YOU NEED TO BE HERE! The friends I’ve made alone are worth the price of an airline ticket.

(There’s a rumor they’re really pushing hard to get George R.R. Martin for next year. Fingers crossed… but either way, this thing needs to be on your bucket list.)

• Published on 10/08/2013 at 1:17 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:01 PM CDT