Rose Leslie and Kit Harington have Game of Thrones to thank not only for the most high-profile roles of their careers but also for their relationship. The couple, who married in Scotland last summer, actually met while filming the hit HBO show.
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Leslie’s Ygritte, a wildling who Harington’s Jon Snow met after he joined the Night’s Watch at The Wall—but the actress’s mark on the show lingers on via one of its most famous lines: “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”
Well that—and their characters’ steamy sex scene in a cave. Now, in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, she reveals how her now-husband made filming those scenes more comfortable for her.
Leslie recalls that only necessary personnel were on set that day and that she “felt very safe,” which Harington played a huge role in.
“[Harington] was, as ever, a gentleman, and he made sure that I was comfortable where he was going to be positioned, and he would always then turn around when they called cut, and the lovely wardrobe dailies would come in with a dressing gown, and then I would be covered. And only then would notes be spoken to us from the director,” she said. “But he was very considerate and made sure as much as possible that I didn’t feel awkward standing in front of people with your tits out. So it’s never going to be an enjoyable day, it’s always going to be an awkward one, but he and the rest of the crew were incredibly considerate, and it’s a conversation that we most certainly had in terms of where the boundaries lay.”
And as for that iconic line? Leslie loves being associated with it—but she and Harington don’t go around saying it to each other at home. “I feel incredibly privileged to have a catchphrase whereby, especially for the last few years, it’s been around me,” she says. “How lucky for any actor to walk away from a television show and have a catchphrase, but I’m sure many people find it the most irritating thing in the world, but there are still some people who find it fairly endearing. I think between he and I, no, we never say it to one another for obvious reasons—and not just ’cause it’s corny.”
Speaking of knowing nothing, we still have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen in the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones—even the cast, Leslie included, doesn’t. But luckily there’s not much longer to wait: It’ll premiere Sunday (April 14) at 9 P.M. ET on HBO.
