‘Game Of Thrones’ Joffrey Hates Celebrities As Much As He Hates The Starks

Game of Thrones fans, at least those who have read the first three books in George R.R. Martin’s bestselling series A Song of Ice and Fire, on which the hit HBO series is based, will have a pretty good idea already of what’s about to happen with the sadistic King Joffrey in the upcoming season. But just to be safe, we won’t give away any spoilers here.

That being said, after watching the epic diatribe delivered by actor Jack Gleeson in a suddenly viral YouTube video, no one will be surprised if the 21-year-old Irish Oxford University student who plays Joffrey on Game of Thrones disappears from the show, and from celebrity, very soon and very permanently.

Shia LeBeouf may claim that he is “retiring from all public life,” but Gleeson, the Game of Thrones star about to appear in his fourth of the shows four seasons, not only means it, he backs it up with some rather well thought-out theoretical arguments.

Gleeson was speaking in London at the Oxford Union, a nearly 200-year-old debating society that frequently hosts noteworthy speakers from academia, politics and popular culture. He gave his talk last November, but video of the event surfaced on line only today. The New York-based pop culture site Gawker was one of the first to spot it, and the video spread from there.

In his talk, the Game of Thrones villain proved that he is actually not only quite an amiable chap in real life, but a thoughtful one as well, as he lit into “the superficial elevation and commodification” of becoming a celebrity, “juxtaposed with the grotesque self-involvement it would sometimes draw out in me,” as quoted in The Huffington Post.

Gleeson is now studying philosophy and theology at Oxford’s Trinity College, and that appears to the path he plans to pursue after he leaves Game of Thrones — whenever that turns out to be. He told Ireland’s Independent in November, around the time of his Oxford Union talk, that Game of Thrones would be his final acting role in TV or film.

At the Oxford Union, he went into detail about what exactly he “detested” both about being a celebrity, and the whole culture of celebrity that dominates contemporary culture.

“Having one’s image, and effectively life, democratized, dehumanizes and sometimes objectifies it into an entertainment product. What sort of valuation of the ego would one have once you’ve let it been preyed upon by the public for years and years? Perhaps, it becomes truly just skin and bones,” Gleeson mused.

“What’s ironic is that you see celebrity endorsing things like, you know, musical tampons and appearing in advertisements for lavender scented teeth whitener or something,” Gleeson continued. “Wielding goods whose sell-by dates ironically, probably, outlast theirs.”

Check out the Game of Thrones star’s entire rant-for-the-ages, above.