Harington: A quiet force as Jon Snow

IF YOU WATCH

What: “Game of Thrones”

Where: HBO

When: Tonight at 9

By Frazier Moore

AP Television Writer

NEW YORK

— Shhhh!

“Quiet” and “still” aren’t words you might associate with “Game of Thrones.” HBO’s epic fantasy, set in the make-believe continent of Westeros, typically swirls with warring armies, forbidding landscape, even fire-breathing dragons.

But Jon Snow embodies the meditative quality that regularly quells words and movement by the characters in favor of a moody immersion in this vast realm for the audience.

Through this universe roams Jon Snow, the illegitimate son of Lord Ned Stark and an outcast, a brooding warrior with haunted eyes, shaggy curls and a rosebud mouth from which few words issue.

That’s the way Kit Harington, who plays Jon, likes it, as “Thrones” begins its fifth season Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO.

“He’s not a complicated character,” says Harington, a compact but buff Brit of 28 whose earnest, subdued manner at an interview this week seems not so far removed from Jon’s.

But that, perhaps, is where the similarity ends.

“There’s a lot of turmoil, a lot of frustration and rage churning inside Jon — and that’s where he keeps it,” says Harington. “He doesn’t overthink what’s going on with him. He’s not a modern man. He’s not seeing a shrink.”

Jon Snow looms large in a crush of characters portrayed by an evolving ensemble of stars who also include Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Emilia Clarke. And while the scale of the series is vast, so is the inspiration: the five-and-counting novels by George R.R. Martin in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.

Harington was signed for “Game of Thrones” at its pilot stage following his run in the West End production of the hit play “War Horse” — which he had landed soon after graduating from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. “Thrones” became his first television role.

It might have just been fate.

“What I’ve always responded to when watching actors is their stillness. When they’re not making too many choices. When they’re concentrating on what’s going on up here” — he taps his temple — “rather than showing everybody what’s going on with gestures. I believe in stillness, and that’s how I like acting myself. Not doing too much.

“Maybe that’s what they wanted for Jon.”

Go figure: an action hero known for his stillness, and, by the way, an unwitting heartthrob. Welcome to Harington’s world.

But what is it he enjoys about this line of work?

“I keep asking myself that,” he laughs before hazarding an answer. “I like the moments: moments in a performance, moments of truth,” he says, declaring himself helpless to be any clearer. “The moments you find that no one else will ever know about — I like those best.”

Shooting “Thrones” takes half of each year. During the hiatus, Harrington shot his 2014 film “Testament of Youth,” which will get its U.S. release in June.

“It’s a true story of a young woman who lost all the men in her life in the First World War,” he said.