Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

I'm Jesse Thorn, it's Bullseye.

John Bradley was about 22 years old when he got the part that changed his life. He just

graduated from theater school in Manchester, England. He'd done a little bit of theater

work but never anything on camera. He got called in for an audition, literally his first

ever. He knew it was a big deal. A new show, being produced by HBO, called Game of Thrones.

And then he got the part. And by the way, we are going to talk about Game of Thrones,

which is a show that is over. But if you haven't seen it, we might spoil some of the show

for you. Nothing really huge but spoiler alert for time travelers.

Anyway, for eight years, John played Sam Well Tarley. John Snow's close friend. They

meet when they both join the Night's Watch and the journey Sam Well takes on the show

is a unique one. In the beginning, it's clear that Sam isn't cut out for the Night's

Watch. He isn't a natural warrior. He is heavy set and soft and awkward with a weapon.

He's smart but he doesn't have a keen sense of rail, polytique or the manipulation of

the levers of power. He's nice, a little goofy. I mean, basically, he's the show's nerd.

And on any other show, you can pretty much guess his character's trajectory. He stays

a bumbling comic sidekick or maybe at some point he gets killed off tragically or maybe,

maybe, maybe somehow, he finds the warrior inside him and he learns to fight like the

hound or whatever. But on Game of Thrones, none of that happens. The thing Sam was bullied

for, his kindness and his empathy and his bookishness turn out to be assets, not liabilities.

He becomes a maester, a scholar. And he plays a vital part in the battle against the

dead. And by the show's last episode, when all the great houses meet to figure out the

...