Kit Harington: Everything the ‘Game of Thrones’ Star Has Said About the Struggles With Fame

Kit Harington recently checked himself into rehab for help with stress and alcohol, but the Game of Thrones Star has never shied away from speaking about his struggles with fame.

Since concluding filming on the final season of the groundbreaking HBO series, however, Harington has a much more difficult time dealing with things than he has in the past.

He made the choice to check himself into the Privé-Swiss wellness retreat in Connecticut sometime in April, so that he could get treatment for his mental health and substance abuse issues.

In a statement to the public, Harington’s publicist said, “Kit has decided to utilize this break in his schedule as an opportunity to spend some time at a wellness retreat to work on some personal issues.”

Below, you can read more about the comments that Harington has made in the past about fame, as initially shared by PEOPLE.

‘Invincibility of Youth’

In 2013, Harington spoke with Entertainment Weekly and lamented that a recent injury he suffered made him appear less “cool” when people found out how he actually got hurt.

“Everyone always says you must have done it on set horse riding or running across glaciers or something cool,” he said

“I was an idiot,” Harington continued. “The ‘invincibility of youth’ and all that. I couldn’t even blame it on a film set. And I had avoided skiing for ages because I thought I’d break my ankle!”

‘Debrief’

Earlier this year, the actor sat with PEOPLE and spoke candidly about his time on GoT and how after filming all he wanted to so was try and relax.

“You never want to do much after a day’s filming, other than sit and like debrief about something else,” he shared. “Remember like, with any filming crew or anything, it’s not just your other castmates.”

“There’s a whole family there that you can gossip and talk about. It’s a little world unto itself, and that’s what we’d end up doing, is going to the bar and chatting s—. It’s like any job, isn’t an office job like that? Except your day happens to have been, like, running around a muddy field with a sword.”

‘One of the Darkest Periods…’

Speaking to Emmy Magazine in March, Harington opened up about the shocking Season 5 finale, wherein his character Jon Snow was stabbed multiple times and presumed dead, and revealed the stress that put on him.

“It was probably one of the darkest periods I have been through in my life,” he confessed. “I think it must have had something to do with being a walking cliffhanger: I didn’t enjoy it.”

“You want to be a lead, and then you get all the spotlight of the biggest show in the world onto you for a few months,” Harington continued. “It’s very disorientating, and weird, and unpleasant in many ways.”

Worried, Anxious, and Vulnerable

Harington also recently told Variety that the concept of celebrity made him “worried” and “anxious,” adding that he also felt “very vulnerable.”

“When you become the cliffhanger of a TV show, and a TV show probably at the height of its power, the focus on you is f—ing terrifying,” he went on to tell the outlet.

“You get people shouting at you on the street, ‘Are you dead?’ At the same time, you have to have this appearance,” he added. “All of your neuroses – and I’m as neurotic as any actor – get heightened with that level of focus.”

‘Designed to Break Us’

In January, Harington spoke to GQ Australia about how incredibly daunting and difficult shooting the final season of the show was.

“The last season of Thrones seemed to be designed to break us. Everyone was broken at the end,” he revealed.

“I don’t know if we were crying because we were sad it was ending of if we were crying because it was so f—ing tiring,” Harington also said. “We were sleep deprived.”

‘Onslaught of Relief and Grief’

During a chat with Esquire in April, he opened up again about the final season, saying, “I felt fine…. I felt fine… I felt fine… Then I went to do my last shots and started hyperventilating a bit. Then they called, ‘Wrap!’ And I just f—ing broke down.”

“It was this onslaught of relief and grief about not being able to do this again,” he then shared.

“I think people expect you to think about the new season coming out or reminiscing… no, we’re thinking about the future,” Harington later said. “I always wanted the moment where this all comes out on DVD and I can put it on the shelf. And I do that, I look at it, and I go, ‘Done.’ That’s the bit I’m looking forward to.”