Uploaded on Ocotobre 10th, 2023
Modified on July 5th, 2024
Do you remember Jack Gleeson ? No, the name doesn’t ring any bells ? What about Joffrey Baratheon ? Still nothing ? Yet, you’ve probably seen him in various memes on the internet. Well, at the end of the tv-show, the actors decided to put an end to his career, yet promising, and moves away from the cameras… until recently when he was seen playing a very small role in a Netflix series. But his appearance is not without meaning !
Let’s rewind to GoT : the experience that has changed everything
Started in 2011, the series inspired by Georges R.R Martin novels saw more characters pass than a metro stop. Extras, actors with small roles… Even main characters weren’t spared by the murderous wave of the writers and author. With 4 seasons and 26 episodes to his board, Joffrey Baratheon is, to the utmost despair of the public, one of the few characters to have passed the first seasons, alive and comfortable in his palace. The actor, so good in his role, has even been called and insulted several times in the street, even after the death of his character in 2014.
After making such an impression, one might expect Jack Gleeson to take advantage of his fame to explore new horizons in his career. But playing the most hated characters in the show- or, possibly, in the world, is not easy. Gleeson was so affected by the hatred directed on his character that, after the long-awaited death of Joffrey Baratheon in 2014, he reveals that he has lost any interest in acting, a profession he was so passionate about since he started theater when he was 9, and in which he was, let’s face it, more than talented.
Nearly a decade later, Jack Gleeson’s finally back !
It’s kind of the surprise of the moment. You may not have recognized him, but under the long hair and brown mustache of Dodgy Mo, Jack Gleeson makes a brief appearance in the Netflix popular series, Sex education. In the 7th episode, he plays the (very) strange friend of Maeve’s brother (Emma Mackey). His role in the episode was not really significant, but has still caught the attention of viewers who immediately noticed that the actor had something familiar.
His withdrawal and return to the spotlight
During these few years away from the spotlight, Jack Gleeson did not stop working. After GoT, he decided to study philosophy and theology at the Trinity College in Dublin ! In 2016, however, he signed a discreet return and devoted himself to his theatre company in Ireland. It’s only years after, that the actor finally regained his lost passion for cinema. He officially makes his return in 2020 in The BBC production, Out of her mind and is interpreting, since december 2023, the infamous Wentworth in Nicolas Winding Refn’s series, The Famous Five (inspired by the Enid Blyton’s novels of the same name).
Soon, he‘s about to interpret Puck, a malicious gobelin fascinated by humans in The Sandman’s season 2.