Game of Thrones' Iain Glenn discusses the dark side of cycling as shown in his film ‘The Racer’

It is always fun to see our favourite actors play out radically different roles. Iain Glenn, who played the honourable and heroic Ser Jorah Mormont, was seen playing a not-so-heroic role in The Racer.

Directed by Kieron J Walsh, the movie circles around a series of scandals that took place at the 1998 Tour de France. The film was the opening film for the Cork International Film Festival. Though fictional, The Racer shows the dangerous lengths teams will go to for a competitive edge. Iain Glen plays the team’s Mr Fixit with the syringes and vials.

Iain Glenn talked to the Irish Examiner about the movie, “I studied documentaries and a couple of films just to get to know the world it occupied. What drew me to the script was it didn’t hold back its punches. I thought it was a very frank and honest, quite a wry, insightful look at a particularly bad period for drug abuse within the sport.”

He continued, “That tour became known as the Tour de Drugs because of the amount of drugs that were going down at the time. The people within the team and my character, certainly within the context of the film, didn’t have any great qualms about it – everyone was doing it and we were doing it as well. That was the norm. It’s ironic to think that (Lance) Armstrong was about to enjoy his great stretch as being the world-leading cyclist and he won so many tours in a row and this was prior to that. During Armstrong’s time, everyone thought the sport had got its act together a bit more.”

Earlier, Kit Harington was seen playing a shady role in Criminals Season 2. What do you think about the movie? Tell us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones wrapped up filming nearly two years ago. The final season of the show met with a lot of controversies. Even though the show is dubbed the greatest TV show of the 21st century, many fans disliked the rushed ending. Some even petitioned to get it remade. HBO recently released a trailer for season 8 of the show, which doesn’t contain any previously unused footage but is new in the sense that it’s a re-edited version. However, actor Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton) was scared to watch the final season due to the backlash it received.

Roose Bolton died in season 6, but McElhatton continued to watch into season 7 because he was a fan of the show. He was reluctant to watch the final season as the bad reviews kept flowing in. He told the Express, “I always watched them a little bit later, I absolutely loved them, but I wasn’t kind of chomping at the bit to see (the final episodes). And then I guess – I will watch them one day, but it got such negative press, didn’t it? I mean, I just, I was really disappointed.”

He continued, “How can you be that big and that original and that new for eight seasons? Eventually, something’s got to give. And in a way, maybe it might have been better to finish at seven seasons. But I understand the pressure HBO probably put them under to say, ‘look, this thing is just a cash cow, it’s delivering and you’ve got to keep it going.’ Some series really do suffer from that, you know. They go on way too long and pass their story. But that’s where I guess art and commerce meet.”

What are your views? Share with us in the comments below!

Hobbies are a great way of calming the mind while keeping one’s passion alive. Some of us slip into reading books or watching TV, while some others take more creative approaches like gardening. Game of Thrones star Sean Bean recently talked to the Financial Times about his childhood hobbies. He also talked about his love for gardening.

Sean said, “Acting is probably the last thing on my mind when I’m gardening: it’s nice to get away from all that. I think it helps my work in the end because it frees the mind from everyday stress, the nitty-gritty. And you realise that things are not quite as important as you think they are.”

“I find I just focus on the moment. It’s a kind of mindful process: you know where you are, you know you’re in the present. But at the same time, your mind is wandering and visualising and imaging colours and structures and shapes. It’s precise, in the sense that you know exactly what you’re doing, but other ideas are also formulating – you’re planning for the future without really recognising that. It’s an interesting state of mind.”

Sean Bean recently talked about the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel play at Broadway. What do you think about gardening as a hobby? Talk to us in the comments below!

Many of us cherish the memories of our childhood. Those were the times when we could be carefree and play without any real-life worries. As we grew up, the times we left behind became a sweet world of fantasy. Game of Thrones star Sean Bean attempted to relive those moments in an interview with The Financial Times.

He said, “As a kid, I was interested in nature. When I grew up in Sheffield in the ’60s and ’70s it was a big industrial city. It also had a lot of trees, countryside and wildlife – there are huge pockets of woodland and fields. We couldn’t wait to get out, especially in the long summer holiday, and go and make dens. We loved farms, derelict farms – there was a fascination in that. Or just an old scrapheap with cars on it that we’d climb in and out of. It was lethal. There were still bomb craters, big, deep things from the second world war. Everybody used to meet there for a fight and stuff after school.”

Sean continued, “Anyway, I couldn’t wait to get out to play and kick around a football, and we’d only come in when it started getting dark. I also got into birdwatching, so I used to go with my mates to Flamborough Head, Sherwood Forest, Clumber Park, places like that. My granddad did a lot of vegetable and fruit gardening. And there was my next-door neighbour, a guy called Ron Howard, who was our neighbour for about 40 or 50 years. I learnt a lot from both of them. I gradually grew into gardening as well.”

Several Game of Thrones stars recently shared their memories of the show on account of the Iron anniversary. Share with us some of your memories in the comments below!