The Game of Thrones star Kit Harington says he doesn’t loathe social media, he just doesn’t trust himself with it. The actor is not there on any social media platform, be it Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook despite his global popularity as Jon Snow, the brooding hero of the epic HBO fantasy drama series where he also met his wife, actor Rose Leslie.
The 34-year-old London-born actor, who will next be seen in the second season of Amazon Prime Video’s anthology series Modern Love, said his avoidance of social media is to protect his “mental health”.
“I don’t loathe social media, I just don’t entirely trust it. And with that, I mean I don’t trust myself on it. I don’t think it’s going to be very good for my mental health. I just avoid it and I find an easier way of living my life. Plus, I think my wife would take the p*** out of me every day if I went on social media. So, I’m just not going to suffer that,” Harington said.
This is not the first time that the actor has opened up about preserving his mental health. In 2019, Harington had revealed that he had to resort to therapy to deal with Jon Snow’s death in the show’s fifth season. He had said that it was the “darkest time” till the character was resurrected in the next season.
Harington’s trust issues with social media is something that he shares with Michael, the character he plays in Modern Love. He features in Strangers on a Train, the third episode of the anthology show, opposite Lucy Boynton, the star of the 2018 biographical musical drama film Bohemian Rhapsody.
The Ireland-set episode, which seems to have taken a leaf out of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy’s 1995 classic Before Sunset, presents the meet-cute story of two strangers Michael and Paula, who meet on a train from Galway to Dublin.
The story sees their bond develop into something ‘meaningful’ during the journey, so much so that they decide to opt for the old school romance by not exchanging numbers or social media contacts and meet again in the traditional way.
Modern Love season two, created by John Carney, will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on August 13.