Jon Snow and other 6 characters that affected their interpreters
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The British actor went into rehabilitation after his problems with alcohol due to the pressure of playing Jon Snow for almost a decade
Jon Snow was a heavy burden for the actor Kit Harington, who suffered problems by alcohol, depression, and stress throughout the filming of Game of Thrones, according to the newspaper El País of Spain. His character appears every season, but it is from the sixth season that he becomes one of the protagonists, a fact that put the focus on the actor, who did not seem pleasant or knew how to struggle with fame. Now, he has been admitted to a rehabilitation center to treat his recurring problems with alcohol and the stress caused by being Jon Snow a part of his life.
Leer en español: Jon Snow y otros 6 personajes que enfermaron a sus interpretes
Like Harington, other actors have suffered the stress of personifying someone in movies or television to the point of endangering their health. We have compiled some of the most famous cases.
1. Shelley Duvall
Possibly one of the most famous cases, the actress suffered the ravages of the shooting of The Shining (1980), as Stanley Kubrick was known for being an obsessive director. The Nation assures that Kubrick made the shooting a hell for the actors, the worst part was taken by Duvall, who received insults from the director, endless repetitions of shots, like one where she goes up crying the stairs that was repeated 127 times. The actress suffered attacks of panic, depression and even hair loss after eleven months of shooting in those conditions.
2. Emilia Clarke
Bringing to life the famous Daenerys Targaryen cost her two aneurisms, major words. After finalizing Game of Thrones, the actress exposed in an article for The New Yorker the reality of what had been to carry out the "Mother of Dragons". After the first season suffered the first aneurysm that had to be operated, then suffer the second at the end of the third season of the series. In the article, the actress tells how difficult it is to carry out the operations, treatment, pain, and pressure of a job of the proportions of the HBO series.
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3. Linda Blair
Its famous personage, Regan McNeil, of The Exorcist (1973) has persecuted her all the life. The stigma of "the Exorcist girl" has weighed on her, both in the film industry and in her daily life. The actress suffered episodes of drug addiction and depression for which she had to be hospitalized, and as if that were not enough, she received threats from religious fanatics who did not like her role as Regan, according to information from La Vanguardia, which was too much for a girl of 14 years.
4. Adrien Brody
Brody reached world fame with The Pianist (2002) by Roman Polanski, where he played the pianist Władysław Szpilman, who in real life survived the Second World War. To prepare for his role, Brody traveled to Europe and got into the character, the actor told The Guardian that he was in depression for more than a year after playing Szpilman, no wonder after the hectic life of the character.
5. Janet Leigh
Another iconic character, Marion Crane of the film Psycho (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock was a real torment for its protagonist, Janet Leigh, who is assured that she was not able to bath in the shower. The Spanish site Fotogramas affirms that the actress only bathed in the bathtub, without curtains and with the doors tightly closed, before the fear of the presence of some murderer, as it happens with the death of her character in the Hitchcock classic.
6. Tippi Hedren
Hitchcock is the master of terror, but not only on the screen. He also made Hedren suffer in real life during the filming of The Birds (1963) while playing Melanie Daniels. The director's obsession with perfection and insults took the actress to the limit, the extreme was lying to Hedren to say they would use mechanical birds for filming when the truth is that they used real, physical and mental consequences for the actress lasted much beyond shooting.
LatinAmerican Post | Luis Ángel Hernández Liborio
Translated from "Jon Snow y otros 6 personajes que enfermaron a sus interpretes".