Nothing makes me dive head-first into a yarn more than when celebrity salaries are leaked online, even if the show is long gone, such as Game of Thrones.
The reason why the iconic series is back in the headlines is because Succession star Brian Cox has just revealed that he went for a role in Game of Thrones but decided to back the fuck out after finding out what the salary was.
Speaking to GQ, the actor revealed: “I’m often asked if I was offered a role in Game of Thrones — reason being that every other bugger was — and the answer is yes, I was supposed to be a king called Robert Baratheon, who apparently died when he was gored by a boar in the first season.
“I know very little about Game of Thrones, so I can’t tell you whether or not he was an important character, and I’m not going to Google it just in case he was, because I turned it down.”
Brian Cox in Succession. (Credit: HBO)
When he was pressed about why he turned it down, he bluntly said: “Why? Well, Game of Thrones went on to be a huge success and everybody involved earned an absolute fortune, of course. But when it was originally offered the money was not all that great, shall we say.”
He also revealed that his character was “going to be killed off fairly early on, so I wouldn’t have had any of the benefits of the long-term effects of a successful series where your wages go up with each passing season.
“So I passed on it, and Mark Addy was gored by the boar instead. (I lied. I did Google it.)”
Following the interview, Just Jared unearthed the rumoured salaries of some of the major hitters in Game of Thrones, based on previous reports from IndieWire and Variety. Let’s delve into them, shall we?
Apparently Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) each put away a cool (USD)$175,000 (AUD$243,712) per episode.
Meanwhile Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) and Kit Harington (Jon Snow) reportedly made USD$500,000 (AUD$696,320) per episode.
The Game of Thrones cast. (Credit: HBO)
What the bloody hell was Brian Cox bitching about then, ya ask?
Well bear in mind that he did point out that when he was going for a role, the show was early on in the piece, so the salaries weren’t quite as handsome as they were by the end of the series. Plus, the aforementioned Game of Thrones stars had a lengthy tenure on the show, so their salaries would’ve gone up and up and up, while Brian’s prospective character was violently killed off.
I bet the bloke is fetching a way sweeter deal for his role on Succession anyway.
Both Game of Thrones and Succession are now streaming on Foxtel.
