The Surprising Reason John Bradley Says Moonfall Was Harder Work Than Game Of Thrones - Exclusive
British actor John Bradley stars as janitor-turned-scientist-turned-hero K.C. Houseman in "Moonfall," the latest disaster film from director Roland Emmerich in which the Moon hurtles off its orbit towards Earth. While Houseman is the one who figures out exactly what's happening to the previously stable relationship between the Earth and its lone satellite, that doesn't mean the brainy theorist doesn't escape from its effects. Along with stars Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson and the rest of the cast, Bradley has to dodge giant falling chunks of the Moon, massive gravity wells and titanic tidal waves.
Although most of that is CG, there is at least one scene in which Bradley and Wilson are submerged in real and very dirty water when they're trapped in a flooded hotel. "It was fun and it looks cool in the movie," he recalls in an exclusive interview with Looper. "But I won't want to do it too often because I swallowed a gargantuan amount of filthy water that day and I don't want to repeat that anytime soon."
Still, it's probably all in a day's work for Bradley, who spent nearly a decade scraping, fighting and running around some of the harshest winter landscapes in Europe while playing Samwell Tarly on "Game of Thrones." Sam and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) spent most of their time beyond the Wall in constant, icy snow and wind, so surely after eight seasons of that, a little dirty water isn't going to faze John Bradley, is it?
Why John Bradley had a tougher time making Moonfall than Game of Thrones
As a matter of fact, Bradley tells Looper that while making both "Moonfall and "Game of Thrones" were difficult in their own way, there was one crucial factor which made working on the former for a few months just a tad harder than stomping around the slush and filth of greater Westeros for 10 years.
"The main difference between that kind of environment in 'Moonfall' and 'Game of Thrones' is that in 'Game of Thrones,' I had the clothes to deal with it," he explains. "We were in the cold for a long time, but we all had ... I had a thick leather tunic, I had an animal pelt, I had a cloak on that was actually an Ikea rug that weighed probably about 50 pounds that I had strapped on my back for 10 years. You didn't necessarily feel the cold. It was uncomfortable, but you didn't feel the cold."
In "Moonfall," however, Bradley's wardrobe was less appropriate. "I had to be swishing around in freezing cold water all day in just a little T-shirt and a hoodie and a pair of jeans," he continues. "So they were both unpleasant, but I would say that sartorially, I was slightly more suited to it in 'Game of Thrones' than 'Moonfall,' for sure."
As someone once said, "clothes make the man," but in this case, clothes make the man either freeze his butt off in cold water or stay relatively warm and dry in extreme weather — all in service of the story.
"Moonfall" is now playing in theaters now.