Kit Harington covers Rolling Stone for ‘Inside Game of Thrones’ feature, George R.R. Martin interviewed

Kit Harington is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine as a part of their ‘Inside Game of Thrones’ feature. The feature includes a piece on Kit entitled “The Winter Soldier,” as well as an in-depth interview with George R.R. Martin.

In a preview of the feature Kit explains what he has in common with Jon Snow. “Snow’s a black sheep. The thing that drives both of us is more similar than you might think – he’s driven by ambition. I’ve always been ambitious too.” Kit admires the way that Jon balances his duty with ambition, and has a strong belief in what he’s doing. He also understands the immediate appeal of Jon Snow when Game of Thrones first aired. “People were looking for a hero trying to make his way through a dark world that they didn’t understand. That’s Jon Snow.”

Rolling Stone has already released their full interview with George R.R. Martin conducted for the feature. The interview is quite lengthy spanning a number of topics including his early life, the early stages of A Song of Ice and Fire, his concerns about screen adaptations, redemption, life’s hard truths, and much more. Here are a couple of excerpts:

Jeopardy prevails more than ever now, after the ending of the third season and the slaughter of Ned’s wife, Catelyn, and his eldest son, Robb, the King of the North.

The more I write about a character, the more affection I feel . . . even for the worst of them. Which doesn’t mean I won’t kill them. Whoever it was who said “Kill your darlings” was referring to his favorite lines in a story, but it’s just as true for characters. The moment the reader begins to believe that a character is protected by the magical cloak of authorial immunity, tension goes out the window. The Red Wedding was tremendously hard to write. I skipped over it until I finished the entirety of A Storm of Swords, then I went back and forced myself to write that chapter. I loved those characters too much. But I knew it had to be done. The TV Red Wedding is even worse than the book, of course, because [GoT creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] turned it up to 11 by bringing in Talisa, pregnant with Robb’s child, none of which happened in the book. So we get a pregnant woman stabbed repeatedly in the belly.

Both Jaime and Cersei are clearly despicable in those moments. Later, though, we see a more humane side of Jaime when he rescues a woman, who had been an enemy, from rape. All of a sudden we don’t know what to feel about Jaime.

One of the things I wanted to explore with Jaime, and with so many of the characters, is the whole issue of redemption. When can we be redeemed? Is redemption even possible? I don’t have an answer. But when do we forgive people? You see it all around in our society, in constant debates. Should we forgive Michael Vick? I have friends who are dog-lovers who will never forgive Michael Vick. Michael Vick has served years in prison; he’s apologized. Has he apologized sufficiently? Woody Allen: Is Woody Allen someone that we should laud, or someone that we should despise? Or Roman Polanski, Paula Deen. Our society is full of people who have fallen in one way or another, and what do we do with these people? How many good acts make up for a bad act? If you’re a Nazi war criminal and then spend the next 40 years doing good deeds and feeding the hungry, does that make up for being a concentration-camp guard? I don’t know the answer, but these are questions worth thinking about. I want there to be a possibility of redemption for us, because we all do terrible things. We should be able to be forgiven. Because if there is no possibility of redemption, what’s the answer then?

Spoiler Warning: Page 3 of this interview does contain some spoilers, after George confirms that the interviewer is sullied he discusses who killed King Joffrey. Click here for the full interview!

The issue will hit news stands and the App Store this Friday, April 25.

• Published on 04/24/2014 at 8:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 12:42 PM CDT