Photography by Nino Munoz for OUTKit Harington would like to set the record straight.
In March, at a Hollywood Foreign Press Association conference, the Game of Thrones actor mentioned that it was "demeaning" to be called a hunk. What surprised him, though, was the media's reaction to it.
"I found it unfair, really, some of the stuff I read [in response]," the actor admits in Out's "Hot List" issue. "I was making a point, which was that I think young men do get objectified, do get sexualized unnecessarily. As a person who is definitely in that category, as a young leading man in this world, I feel I have a unique voice to talk about that. I was making a point to sort of say, 'It just needs to be highlighted.' With every photo shoot I ever go to, I'm told to take off my shirt, and I don't."
Harington is still learning how to deal with the press. For example, he thinks talk shows are "terrifying." In fact, he confesses, "They scare the f--king living shit out of me." Luckily, Harington is "slowly getting to be more comfortable with them."
The actor starred in 2014's Pompeii, but he is best known for his role as Jon Snow on Game of Thrones. "I look like this for the show, and this is how people recognize me at the moment," he says. However, if he weren't on the HBO series, Harington says he would "have short hair and no beard. Maybe a beard. I like having a beard. I could walk out on the street now, like this, and I would get recognized a lot."
For now at least, he's grateful to be so closely associated with the character.
"Usually Jon's got a good lot of scenes, but I don't speak much. Quiet character. This year he talks a lot, because he's got to be a politician, which is really weird for me," he says of the show's fifth season. "I also had more filming dates than, I think, anyone. There was a lot of Jon Snow stuff. I had a big season."
"Every year, I've known before everyone else what happens," the 28-year-old British actor tells Out. "This year, I just thought, 'I want to watch as a fan.'"