‘I’M A SOLID ACTOR. BUT I WANT TO BE BOLDER IN FUTURE, AND THAT INVOLVES LEARNING MORE’
Joe Dempsie is used to intense fanfare surrounding projects in which he’s appearing. He first encountered it when playing Chris in the acclaimed British teen comedy-drama Skins. The fans, he says, “were a demographic [that would] run over to you and say something or just scream in your face and run away”. The show gained a cult following among Britain’s youth, but, more interestingly, it provided a springboard for several actors: Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel, Daniel Kaluuya and Hannah Murray all starred alongside Dempsie. That was more than a decade ago, though, and in that time Joe managed to find his way to Westeros and bag a spot on television’s biggest global stage, Game of Thrones, whose fan base is perhaps the most passionate there is.
Joe plays Gendry, a much-loved character of the books, and now the T.V. series, who happens to be one of King Robert Baratheon’s bastard sons. When Robert dies, Gendry is the only one who isn’t murdered, and as a result he undertakes a wild journey of survival, loss and discovery through the fictional landscape. Like Joe, Gendry is humble and has a
