Game of Thrones: Brian Cox reveals why he turned down a role

'I was silly. I’m a complete addict now'

Brian Cox in 'Anna'

A number of British acting greats have appeared in Game of Thrones now, Jonathan Pryce, Sean Bean, Charles Dance…but one turned down a part in the monstrously successful HBO show, Brian Cox.

The Bourne Identity and X-Men actor now massively regrets it.

“Stupidly, I turned it down in the early days because they didn’t pay enough money,” he told Vodzilla, laughing. “Now they have more money. And I was silly. I was silly, it was silly, because I’m a complete addict now. But I don’t know what I could play.”

“I just watched my friend Ian McShane and I thought, ‘Ooh, Ian’s in it’, so I settled down to watch him. And I thought, ‘Ian did that?’ and immediately I thought, ‘God, they must have paid him well’, because I know Ian!” he joked.

“And there was Max von Sydow doing that character that he did, so in a way, it’s attracting certain people who do film, and, of course, I’ve got friends like Clive Russell and Liam Cunningham and Charlie Dance is an old pal, being in it, and they had a great time in it.”

“I’m still waiting for the call for Game of Thrones and if they’ve got more decent money, I’ll be there!”

As the show has grown more and more popular, its budgets have swelled along with it, and the cast got another pay bump last month.

Its increased coffers were clear in season 6’s Battle of the Bastards, which Cox, now a huge fan of the show, waxed lyrical about.

“Now I know what they spend on it, in terms of the visual aspect of it… Last week’s episode was phenomenal… If you think of The Hobbit or you think of The Lord of the Rings, the battle sequence in Game of Thrones was a lot more modest,” he added, “but much more brilliant than any of the battle sequences in any of those movies and all those kind of CGI characters doing their bit, whereas this was real people, I mean, the CGI was just brilliantly done and clearly there was a bit of green screen, but it’s astonishing. For television, it is truly astonishing.”