It seems odd for a 21 year old actor fresh off of one of the biggest TV shows of all time to call it a career, but that’s exactly what Jack Gleeson said he would do and now he’s done it…
Irish born actor Jack Gleeson could probably have any number of parts following his stint as playing the vile and vicious King Joffrey on HBO’s hit series ‘Game of Thrones’, but he won’t be reading any scripts and his days of casting calls are over.
Instead, Gleeson, 21, will turn his attention to his final year at college at Trinity University in his native Ireland where he plans to finish school and then think about life after acting just as he always intended. Watch the video below for those curious (it’s highly recommended)
For such a young man, Gleeson was resolute in his decision to give up the Hollywood life last year when he made an impassioned speech while attending a function at the Oxford Union talking about his distaste for the celebrity culture and celebrity worship as a whole. His nearly 30-minute chat was applauded by many fans and journalists, but still there was a certain curiosity that stuck around wondering if Gleeson would change his mind once his acting stint on ‘Game of Thrones’ ended.
Well SPOILERS for those that had the misfortune of reading this far without knowing what happened on Sunday night’s episode titled ‘The Lion and the Rose’, but Gleeson’s character Joffrey was killed off in a brutal assassination after drinking poisoned wine at his own wedding. Gleeson will stick around for at least one more episode as part of his funeral procession, but then he will officially leave ‘Game of Thrones’ and acting forever.
“I’ve been acting since age 8. I just stopped enjoying it as much as I used to,” Gleeson told EW.com. “And now there’s the prospect of doing it for a living, whereas up until now it was always something I did for recreation with my friends, or in the summer for some fun. I enjoyed it. When you make a living from something, it changes your relationship with it. It’s not like I hate it, it’s just not what I want to do.”
Gleeson won’t completely close the door on a return at some point later in life. He is only 21 after all, but he’s made his decision to leave acting behind and start a new life far away from Westeros, King’s Landing and especially Hollywood.
