Even when a television series is as wildly popular as was HBO’s Game of Thrones, continued success following the series’ end isn’t a guarantee for its actors. Some certainly do go on to find continued fame and work, but for others it’s a bit more of a challenge as they look to find something new and different from their previous work. Such is the case for Game of Thrones star John Bradley. Bradley, who played Samwell Tarly in Game of Thrones took a two-year break from acting noting that no one seemed to want to take a chance on him to do something different — and he credits Jennifer Lopez with saving his career.
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Speaking with NME (via CBR), Bradley explained that he wanted to do something different after Game of Thrones and soon found his confidence faltering when different roles weren’t coming.
“Nobody seemed to want to take a chance on me and my confidence began to suffer,” Bradley said. “I wanted something different… Every time you have a show as successful as Game of Thrones, loads of [similar characters] follow. But I thought: ‘I’ll resist them.’”
Bradley further explained that he kept getting offered roles that were essentially versions of Samwell Tarly and that getting another big role seemed “pretty outlandish” and then, Lopez called, offering Bradley a role in her film, Marry Me.
“I got a phone call from my agent, and he says Jennifer Lopez is doing a film in New York and she wants you to play her manager,” Bradly said. “I said, ‘Send me the audition script.’ But my agent replied, ‘There’s no audition, she wants you. She’s a fan of the show and seen you in interviews.’ Now a romcom couldn’t be more different to Game of Thrones! It was the reset I needed.”
In addition to Bradley’s very un-Game of Thrones role in Marry Me, the actor also stars in Roland Emmerich’s new film, Moonfall, and while he also praises Emmerich for choosing to present an ordinary person as a big screen hero, it’s Lopez he says “pulled him out of a nightmare time.”
“I’m always going to be very grateful,” Bradley said.
Bradley is also set to star in Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’s Netflix adaptation of the Chinese novel The Three-Body Problem, a project he’s very excited about.
“If David and Dan pull this off, it will change the rules of TV again,” Bradley said. “Fingers crossed, it will have the impact they want. I’ve never read a script so ambitious. I’ve never wanted something to succeed so much because, if it does, the game is changed.”
Marry Me and Moonfall are both in theaters now.
