Brian Cox Explains Why He Turned Down Role in ‘Game of Thrones’

Brian Cox almost ruled the Seven Kingdoms!

In an excerpt from his upcoming memoir Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, the 75-year-old Succession actor revealed that he was offered a role in Game of Thrones and explained why he turned it down.

“I’m often asked if I was offered a role in Game of Thrones — reason being that every other bugger was — and the answer is, yes, I was supposed to be a king called Robert Baratheon, who apparently died when he was gored by a boar in the first season,” Brian wrote, via GQ. “I know very little about Game of Thrones, so I can’t tell you whether or not he was an important character, and I’m not going to google it just in case he was, because I turned it down.”

“Why? Well, Game of Thrones went on to be a huge success and everybody involved earned an absolute fortune, of course. But when it was originally offered the money was not all that great, shall we say,” Brian continued.

“Plus I was going to be killed off fairly early on, so I wouldn’t have had any of the benefits of the long-term effects of a successful series where your wages go up with each passing season,” he added. “So I passed on it, and Mark Addy was gored by the boar instead. (I lied. I did google it.)”

Also in the memoir, Brian explained why he turned down a role in Pirates of the Caribbean.