How A Terrible Audition Led To Game Of Thrones' Kristian Nairn Being Cast As Hodor
Some of the greatest heroes this world has ever known only speak their name. Greats like Pikachu, Groot, and Hodor (Kristian Nairn) may only have one word in their vocabulary, but that word is more than enough to convey their intentions most of the time. In "Game of Thrones," Hodor is often called a simpleton, but in all honesty, he is probably one of the most noble characters in that show, a rare personality trait on this series.
In service of Winterfell and Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright), Hodor uses his strength and loyalty to ferry Bran around acts as Bran's legs, braving some of the most inhospitable conditions in Westeros. Some, like Osha (Natalia Tena), believe that Hodor has giant's blood in him, but that may simply be a common Westerosi expression. It is eventually revealed that Hodor wasn't always only capable of only saying his name, and that Bran had something do with it on account of his powers as the "Three Eyed Raven." This moment in "Game of Thrones" leads to one of its most infamous scenes — one that has people yelling "hold the door" to this day. Oddly enough, the entire reason why Nairn was cast as Hodor comes down to a terrible audition, and it wasn't even for "Game of Thrones."
Nairn's audition in Hot Fuzz paved the way for Game of Thrones
During an interview with Huff Post, Kristian Nairn was asked how he landed the role of Hodor, and he replied, "I always had a guy who would get me auditions, he was loosely termed an agent, and he put me forward for a Simon Pegg movie called 'Hot Fuzz,' which I didn't get the part. It went terribly. I was DJing until 6 a.m. from the night before and had to fly to London and get straight off a plane to do an audition. Worst audition ever. But it was Nina Gold who cast 'Game of Thrones,' and four years later she called me back."
Nairn continued and said that he was amazed that Gold was able to remember him four years later, and that she offered to give Nairn another chance at a different part. From there, as Nairn put it, is history, and he has been lovingly known as Hodor ever since. "Yeah ... I didn't understand what the part was," Nairn admitted. "That was the second proper audition I've ever done, and I didn't understand what the character was about then. Someone just said, 'This guy can only say 'Hodor,' and I'm like, 'What? What? Why?' They're like, 'We don't know,' and I'm like, 'Give me some backstory.' No one knows, so I just did my interpretation of it, I guess, and they liked it." Clearly, all's well that ends well, and Nairn's iconic turn as Hodor will live on forever for "Game of Thrones" fans.