This “Game of Thrones” actor wasn’t thrilled to be on the show

All Game of Thrones fans know that Stannis Baratheon never really got excited about much of anything. It turns out that the apathetic attitude wasn’t an act for actor Stephen Dillane, who didn’t exactly sound like he had a great time on the show.

In an interview with French magazine Liberation published earlier this week, Stephen explained that he was actually rather bored by his role on the show, all the way until Stannis’s death at the hands of Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) at the end of season five. “I do not regret having done Game of Thrones, but I have nothing to say about it,” he said (in French translated into English). “I did not understand the series, or its success while I was in it.”

Game of Thrones is a rather busy series, and while that’s an element many fans adore, it seemed to be too much for Stephen to handle. “The experience was very bizarre, it slipped through my fingers,” he said. “For me to like a role I need to be able to be interested in it, which was really not the case. I was a bit overwhelmed by the events.”

So why did he take the role on, then? When Liberation asked him this question, there was a long, silent pause leading up to his terse response: “Among other things, for the money.”

Well, now we know that one fan theory about Stannis is wrong: He’s definitely dead, because it sounds like Stephen wanted to get the heck outta there.