Snow is Coming: Game of Thrones' Kit Harington on his new film Testament of Youth

Kit Harington would seem to have been catapulted to star status by his lead heartthrob role in the wildly successful Game of Thrones. It’s not been quite as meteoric as one might imagine, though, he says when we meet with him in a London hotel to discuss his latest film, Testament of Youth. “Some people think it went ‘bang’ but it wasn’t like that,” he says, dressed in familiar black and sipping an equally dark coffee. “It was little surprises along the way.” A cover for a magazine here (“that’s quite exciting”) and a red carpet there, it seems. “I try not to look at it in terms of posters and magazine covers at the moment. It was about that for a while, but that clouded why I wanted to act.”

Despite adopting his chosen profession at a youthful age, he didn’t always want to become an actor. “No, for the longest time I wanted to be a journalist. Then I just found myself doing more and more performance at school, and when I came to university level I was putting loads of time into extra-curricular acting, and not enough into academia; that spelled it out for me, really.”

From there he landed a dream role as the lead in War Horse at the National Theatre. “You don't get that [kind of opportunity] other than for War Horse – as a drama school grad – so I jumped at it.” From there, Game of Thrones beckoned. Since then, his stock has risen considerably, making the role of the popular Jon Snow his very own. “It’s strange even being directed now in Thrones. The directors who come in have definitely been briefed that the actors know what the characters are doing – to let us do our thing.”

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“I try not to look at it in terms of posters and magazine covers at the moment. It was about that for a while, but that clouded why I wanted to act” – Kit Harington

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Was the desire to appear in a sumptuous wartime romance a conscious attempt to break from the bloody carnage of his television show? “Yeah, I think it was a reflex against the type of drama that Thrones is. Being in a big epic fantasy can, in some ways, be a harder craft than something more minimal like Testament of Youth. With Testament everything was free-flowing: the camera could work around you; you could do take after take without having to worry about effects in the background, or whether you’re hitting marks exactly. What was lovely about Testament was that it was so much about the performance.”

That performance is as Roland, a bright young thing who falls deeply in love with the film’s protagonist, Vera (Alicia Vikander), before the outbreak of the First World War. “[Roland] goes through the most intensive of journeys. You can’t get something more life-changing than the First World War for the soldiers who fought in it, and the women who were left at home. To throw myself into that depth of an emotional journey was exciting. I have a real fascination with the Great War and when Testament of Youth came up, it immediately piqued my interest because I knew the book, and it was so well adapted, and a chance to play this real guy. I’ve never played a historical figure before, especially with the reams of research material available with the book and the letters.” Weighty themes and the portrayal of a scarred veteran weren’t the most concerning aspects for Harington, though: “The harder bit was trying to get the lightness of the start, y’know; all the love," he says. "I was quite confident in the change, but when we got to production I thought, ‘fuck, I’ve got to show him as a boy first.’"

Fortunately that proved manageable opposite Vikander. “She’s beautiful to work with, and incredibly emotionally astute. I just hope I get to work with her again. I think she chooses her roles very wisely and this was a great movie for her; she nailed it. She’s about to go off and become this huge movie star – hopefully I will too.” A recent blockbuster lead in Pompeii (playing “a physical beast, so it meant going to the gym all the time”), a turn in a high-octane Spooks film on the way, and a fifth season of Game of Thrones imminent would all suggest he's well on the way.