Was he really that bad?
The celebrity cameo can be a strange beast.
In some cases, people love it – Bill Murray in Zombieland, for instance.
In other scenarios, it’s a weirdly distracting move – David Beckham as a gruff knight in King Arthur: Legend of the Sword comes to mind.
Beckham actually has something in common with Ed Sheeran in this regard, with the singer having played a Lannister soldier for a couple of minutes in Game of Thrones.
Sheeran’s appearance in the first episode of the seventh season was brief enough and, perhaps surprisingly, didn’t lead to a grisly end.
Instead, he sang a song and had a friendly chat with Arya.
Clip via GameofThrones
Speaking on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast on Monday, the 30-year-old singer-songwriter – and occasional actor – said that his appearance was “polarising” before noting that he was only there to surprise Maisie Williams on her birthday.
“It was ruined by Sophie [Turner] – Sansa,” said Sheeran.
“Sophie said at Comic Con – ‘Oh, we’ve got Ed Sheeran on the next season’ – and I think Maisie was like, ‘What?’ – because she didn’t know not to say it. I toured with Snow Patrol in 2012 and season two was airing – Gary [Lightbody] was mad on it and he had filmed a cameo for season three.
“So, I started watching it with him [and] instantly got obsessed. Game of Thrones was like the show that I had the DVD box sets back home and none of my friends wanted to watch it. So, I used to get a mate around the house and be like – ‘We’re watching Game of Thrones’ – and I would watch season one with them for the day and then get them hooked.”
Sheeran then explained how he was in touch with the creators for years before his cameo on the show, who thought it “didn’t make sense” but proceeded regardless.
“There was a big ‘Why?’ [from the public] – and I just say to people; ‘What would you say?’,” said Sheeran.
“I feel like people’s reaction to it sort of muddied my joy to it,” he added.
Sheeran also spoke about his time on short-lived TV show The Bastard Executioner, which was created by Sons of Anarchy’s Kurt Sutter.
“I loved the first day [of shooting] and then the second day I felt so out of place, because I wasn’t an actor and the confidence… I didn’t feel very confident as an actor,” he said.
“I watch that show now and it actually turned out really well. I feel I don’t really have imposter syndrome too much with my own career because I know the path that it’s trod but I have real imposter syndrome with acting.”
You can listen to the full interview here.
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