Why actor turned down huge Game of Thrones role

On top of calling Edward Norton an “arse,” Johnny Depp “overrated,” and hailing Spike Lee as one of the best directors of all time, the Succession star also revealed he turned down a couple of big roles in Game of Thrones and Pirates of the Caribbean.

In a recent excerpt from his book Putting the Rabbit in the Hat published to GQ, the 75-year-old says he was offered a lead role in the smash hit HBO fantasy series back in 2010, but ultimately said no.

“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,” he writes.

“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.”

Even though Game of Thrones went on to be a massive success for HBO and, as Cox writes, “everybody involved earned an absolute fortune,” the original offer wasn’t large enough for him to commit to the show.

“Plus I 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,” Cox continues. “So I passed on it, and Mark Addy was gored by the boar instead.”

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The rest is history. The reverse was true for the Harry Potter franchise, which Cox says he’s surprised he wasn’t invited to appear in.

“Harry f***ing Potter,” Cox laments. “I think someone had a burning cross held up for me not to be in Harry Potter, because all my pals were in it. I think the part I might have played was the one that Brendan Gleeson got, Mad-Eye Moody, but Brendan was more in fashion than I was at that point, and that’s very much the way of the world in my business, so he got it. Also, he’s much better than I would have been.”

But because he’s Brian Cox, the actor happily has more roles he’s turned down than been overlooked.

One of those was Pirates of the Caribbean, in which he was offered the role of the Governor. Even though Cox admired director Gore Verbinski, he had to say no.

“It would have been a money-spinner, but of all the parts in that film it was the most thankless,” Cox writes, “plus I would have ended up doing it for film after film and missed out on all the other nice things I’ve done.”

On top of that, Cox is no fan of Johnny Depp, who he writes is “so overblown, so overrated”. Closing out his piece, Cox tears into Depp for his performance in Edward Scissorhands.

“Let’s face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don’t have to do anything. And he didn’t,” Cox writes. “And subsequently, he’s done even less. But people love him. Or they did love him. They don’t love him so much these days, of course. If Johnny Depp went for Jack Sparrow now, they’d give it to Brendan Gleeson.”

Ultimately?

“So no – no regrets about Pirates, I don’t think.”

This story originally appeared on Decider and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Succession star Brian Cox reveals he turned down lead role in Game of Thrones