Iain Glen thinks Boris Jonson and co need to stop ‘disappearing up their own rears’ and deal with bigger issues like the refugee crisis.
As Boris Johnson and his Tory cronies play their own version of Game of Thrones, one of the show’s stars has challenged them to stop “disappearing up their own rears” and start dealing with bigger issues like the refugee crisis.
Edinburgh actor Iain Glen, 57, spent a decade being part of the political manoeuvrings in GoT. And he is as sick as the rest of us of watching the Tories going through their own bloodless version of the hit TV show.
From Friday, he and fellow Thrones star Lena Headey, who played Queen Cersei, star in The Flood. Human Rights Watch have described the film as an “accurate portrayal of the refugee crisis”.
Iain, who played Ser Jorah Mormont in all eight series of GoT, hopes the new film will make people realise there’s more to politics that Brexit.
He said: “I’m not massively political but I’m overwhelmed at the incompetence of the current politics in Westminster. It’s breathtaking.
“I am so f****** disinterested at the Tory party trying to sort themselves out and work out who is going to lead them.
“The current crop look so completely incompetent I wouldn’t wish any of them on any of us.
“Then, look at the Labour Party. For God’s sake, just tell us what you think. No one knows. I’m so disinterested in British politics and so disinterested in how utterly insular we have become.
“I’m for any film that tries to say, ‘Guys, there are bigger things going on here. There are things you really could be properly engaged with if you stopped disappearing up your own rears.’Scot Richard Madden admits feeling ‘broken’ and considered quitting acting.
“The Flood is a very important subject that’s been buried by how insular UK politics has become.”
Released in cinemas a day after World Refuge Day, The Flood features Lena, who is also executive producer on the film, as an immigration officer.
Iain plays her boss and Humans star Ivanno Jeremiah has the role of Haile, who makes a perilous 3100-mile journey to the Calais Jungle, only to be caught getting into the UK illegally in a lorry.
While The Flood may not have the global reach of GoT, it has a global message and Iain hopes it can do its bit in changing a system that is out-dated and cruel.
He added: “It’s a very human drama and gives the outsider an insight into what people have to go through, from the traumatic lives they are trying to escape from and then the cold bureaucracy of the UK process.
“It’s so hard for us who have always enjoyed a relative quality of life to get our heads round what it must be like to need to flee your homeland.
“I would love to have a system in place which more efficiently and humanely targets those people who need to find safety in a new country and for us to be able to offer that.”
Iain teamed up with Lena to make The Flood before shooting the final series eight of GoT.
Their characters only had one big scene together on Thrones – when all the parties came together to see the White Walker.
But the pair became friends after bumping into each other in the Irish base camp or in the hotels the cast were put up in.
While we are used to Iain in Jorah’s infamous tattered yellow shirt, he’s in a shirt and tie for The Flood.
“It’s actually very unlike me,” he laughed, “I don’t like wearing ties.”
You can’t have a chat with Iain without talking about Thrones. While he was already a well-kent face, starring in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the Resident Evil franchise as baddie Dr Isaacs, Iain knows GoT has solidified his success on a global stage.
Thrones didn’t finish on the high many hoped it would. You could argue that the fourth episode of series eight, The Long Night, which saw Jorah protect his beloved Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) from the dead was the high watermark of the series.
The final two episodes weren’t as well received, with a petition even being launched calling for series eight to be remade.
Iain shrugged: “Globally, I thought the petition was quite small compared with the amount of people who watched it.
“I’m pretty critical and I had no problems with it. I thought there was some exceptional moments in the last series. But I think people felt they owned the show and decided what the ending would be and where the story went and how the characters should have behaved.
“It’s indicative of how much people felt it belonged to them and how much they cared for it. You can’t please everyone all the time.”
After the series finished, GoT writer Dave Hill said Jorah, protector and friend to Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons, was originally meant to head back north at the end, alongside Jon Snow (Kit Harington).
But it would have been too complicated and in the end, Jorah got the noble death he had craved, defending the woman he loved.
Iain said: “ I thought I was given the perfect ending. I was very happy.”
The funeral scene was also a huge fan favourite, especially when Daenerys whispered to a dead Jorah.
The actors are the only ones who know what was said – and they will never reveal it.
The pair became very close during filming because of the amount of scenes they had together, but also when Emilia survived two brain aneurysms in 2011 after the first series of Thrones.
“She was so strong,” Iain said. “She had real scares but she’s an amazing lady. We are still very close.”
With three decades of work under his belt, Iain isn’t moping about the loss of Thrones.
While he felt “very bereft” as he walked away from the set, he has just carried on an already stellar career.
There is GoT memorabilia around the London home he shares with wife Charlotte and daughters Mary and Juliet.
Iain chuckled: “I have some action figures who occupy unusual roles in my house. One is guarding the downstairs toilet, pointing his sword at the toilet roll.”
He has lived in London since his time at drama college but visits Edinburgh three or four times a year to see his elderly parents.
And his kids are definitely Scottish.
“My wife is English but I keep calling the kids ‘utterly Scottish’, much to her upset.
“I often speak to them in broad Scottish and they have to work out what I’m saying, like, ‘Dinnae fash yersel’.”
Source: Daily Record
