Brenock O'Connor: Not looking to get out of 'Game Of Thrones' shadow

Brenock O'Connor is known as Olly from the world of "Game Of Thrones", and he doesn't mind living under the shadow of the role. The actor says he looks at his association with the widely popular show as a "glorious comfort blanket".

Jul 8, 2020, 11:03 am ISTNewsIANS

Brenock O'Connor.

O'Connor got popular as the infamous Olly, who stabs Jon Snow in the show's season five finale, back in 2015.

"This is a question that I get asked a lot, not just by journalists, but by people in my family, like, 'how are you going to get out of the 'Game Of Thrones' shadow'. And I don't look at it as a shadow," O'Connor told IANS when asked about living with the image.

"I look at it as glorious cover to stop me from getting rained on all the time. It's a glorious comfort blanket to be in one of the greatest shows of all time. And I can only go outward from there and do what I want to do because I've got this incredible net of being involved in one of the most widely regarded best told stories of all time. So I'm not actively looking to get out of 'Game of Thrones' shadow because it's a glorious shadow to be in," he added.

Now, O'Connor is looking forward to starting another journey on the small screen as Tom Harris, best friend of the protagonist in teen spy series, "Alex Rider".

"This story is a real joy and Tom is an incredible gift for an actor to be able to discover someone like him. So it's more like taking each separate journey as it comes than trying to one-up myself from one journey to the next," he said.

Based on Anthony Horowitz's young adult spy novels, the series is about Alex Rider (essayed by Otto Farrant) and his transition to a spy from a schoolboy. The cast also includes Stephen Dillane, Vicky McClure and Andrew Buchan. The show streams on Sony LIV from July 10.

Talking about how the story has evolved, O'Connor said: "We all just got to watch and find out (how it has evolved). The storyline of the struggle within the relationship of Tom and Alex has been one of my favourite stories to act, because it's a story that I've not had the opportunity to do which is two teenage boys struggling with so many things going on in their lives, let alone the spy stuff, (but also) struggling with communicating."

"It is something that we're getting better at talking about (which is) mental health in young men. But the idea that in the middle of this hardcore, drama thriller spy show, there's just a scene where a teenage broken boy goes to his friend's house when his friend isn't there and just cries out, is heartbreaking. It's a horrible thing to see. And it's such a brilliant part of what makes this show a brilliant story. It's not just a spy story. It's a rounded, well told human tale," he added.

(Sugandha Rawal can be contacted at sugandha.r@ians.in)