Sean Bean: Humble warrior

 

Hindustan TimesNew Delhi, October 15, 2011

 

(L-R) Emilia Clarke, Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage, cast members in the new HBO series "Game of Thrones," take part in a panel discussion on the film during the HBO Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, California.

Actor Sean Bean talks about his upbringing, fantasy roles and acting Actor Sean Bean has to his credit plum names such as The Lord of the Rings (TLOTR), GoldenEye, Troy and what not but did one know that the English actor has his roots as the son of a welder from Sheffield to thank for his prowess. “I do think it affects how you grow up. I became a welder too. So when I told my mum and dad I was going to be an actor, I got a few funny looks. But it did kind of fashion the way I was brought up and the way I thought about things,” says the 52-year-old.

Perhaps that is what shaped up his performances as he came to be known as the actor who could engage the camera even if it was held on his face for few seconds.
“I suppose a lot of it is observation. Being an actor, you do tend to pick up the way people act or laugh and the way their temperament changes suddenly,” says Bean, who was last seen in HBO’s medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones.

Based on George R.R. Martin’s bestselling series, A Song of Ice and Fire, it showed him enacting Eddard Ned Stark, a tough northern warrior, who risks everything to defend his friend.
Having done other costume dramas such as TLOTR and Troy, he confesses it is his fancy to do such projects because “the characters tend to be very one-dimensional in a lot of the stuff you get offered these days”.

Ask him if he had any apprehensions to venture into the TV fantasy after TLOTR, he says, “Not really. I suppose they do have similarities. Lord of the Thrones."