{"id":511338,"date":"2026-06-21T16:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511338\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T16:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:35:09","slug":"kit-harington-discusses-directorial-debut-psychopomp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511338\/","title":{"rendered":"Kit Harington Discusses Directorial Debut ‘Psychopomp’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBritish actor Kit Harington spent years on the set of some of the biggest films and TV shows of the last decade, from his breakthrough role as Jon Snow in HBO\u2019s \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d to Sir Henry Muck in BBC\u2019s \u201cIndustry\u201d and his introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Dane Whitman in Chloe Zhao\u2019s \u201cEternals.\u201d Now, the seasoned actor is moving behind the cameras, with his directorial debut, \u201cPsychopomp<\/a>,\u201d playing in competition at the Raindance Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe short film, inspired by works such as Michael Mann\u2019s \u201cHeat\u201d and Martin McDonagh\u2019s \u201cIn Bruges,\u201d follows desperate man Harry (Harry Melling<\/a>) and hired assassin Liam (Ciar\u00e1n Owens) as they take a car trip toward a life-changing decision. Speaking with Variety ahead of the film\u2019s screening at Raindance, Harington says his decision to step into directing was \u201cgrowing as a kind of annoyance for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019d be on set as an actor and thinking about how I would shoot a scene, what notes I would give to an actor,\u201d he goes on. \u201cYou can\u2019t suggest a shot to a director or give a note to another actor on set, and [that] was a growing need I was feeling that told me that I had to make my own thing to see if that instinct was the right one to follow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe right moment \u201cto take the reins on the creative front\u201d came when Harington started to think about a story about men, which came from a place of wanting to talk about \u201cmale depression, male friendship [and] male vulnerability.\u201d \u201cThere is only so much dinner table chat you can personally handle before you need to explore it in a different way as a creative,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKit Harington in \u2018Industry,\u2019 courtesy of BBC<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for casting Melling and Owens, Harington attributes it to his time working in the industry and the connections he has made in the almost two decades since he started his career as an actor. \u201cYou build friendships and \u2018stick\u2019 for want of a better word when reaching out to wonderful actors such as Harry and Ciar\u00e1n.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCiar\u00e1n was first to be cast, as I\u2019ve known what a fantastic, intelligent actor he is for a while,\u201d he adds. \u201cHe\u2019s got this combination of hard and soft that I thought was perfect for the role of Liam.\u201d Harington then reached out to Melling, who he says has an \u201ceveryman quality whilst being completely unique at the same time.\u201d \u201cHe was perfect for the role. I was so lucky to have them both.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother key connection turned collaboration in \u201cPsychopomp\u201d is cinematographer Fabian Wagner, who worked on \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d as well as other major projects such as \u201cJustice League\u201d and \u201cMasters of the Universe.\u201d Harington says the two had been friends since working together on the HBO series, and he always saw Wagner as \u201csomewhat of a superhero DOP.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe lights incredibly but also in an amazingly fast way,\u201d he adds. \u201cHe also understands performance and story in a way that I think is quite rare. I wanted exactly that.\u201d The director also says he wanted the film to have a \u201cvery grainy feel\u201d and a \u201cMichael Mann realism to it\u201d but to also feature key pops of color, such as the golden Range Rover the two men travel in and a pivotal pink tutu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor-turned-director recalls his first day shooting at the service station as being \u201creally special.\u201d \u201cI slightly freaked out as they played the scene and they were perfect,\u201d he adds, saying he realized then he didn\u2019t have any notes to give the two actors. \u201cIt was a real joy to actually just watch actors do what they do from a completely different angle and admire them. Sounds odd but It was the first time I really realized what an amazing craft it is. It took seeing it from the outside in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about how he feels about \u201cPsychopomp\u201d playing at Raindance, Harington says he is \u201cthrilled.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve been to the festival as an actor before and loved it,\u201d he goes on. \u201cIt\u2019s my home town and that\u2019s very special too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTraveling with the film, he says, has been \u201cinteresting.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s been more relaxing than when I\u2019m an actor. Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m in control of it. I feel less exposed. I love that people are coming to see it, I love audiences for taking the time to do that and also I feel I care less about the reaction. I\u2019m just happy people are watching it when they are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British actor Kit Harington spent years on the set of some of the biggest films and TV shows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,44285,61,60,82931,218365,198206],"class_list":["post-511338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-harry-melling","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kit-harrington","tag-psychopomp","tag-raindance-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}