The singer came in for criticism and temporarily deleted his Twitter account.
Sigur Ros sang at Joffery’s wedding. Coldplay’s Will Champion performed at the Red Wedding. Mastodon even hunted Jon Snow at Hardhome and yet, none of these cameos faced as much backlash as Ed Sheeran’s recent spot as a Lannister soldier on Game of Thrones.
One man that was happy with the performance was the director, Jeremy Podeswa, who felt that Sheeran’s casting was “appropriate for the part because he needed to sing.”
Podeswa is a seasoned Game of Thrones director after helming episodes like The Red Woman and Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken, and he felt that “Ed did a lovely job – he’s a lovely actor and a lovely person. He was appropriate for the part because he needed to sing. If people didn’t know who Ed was, they wouldn’t have thought about it twice,” Podeswa told Newsweek.
“The hoo-ha seems to be from things that are outside of the world of the show. In the world of the show he did a lovely job, and he looks like he belongs in that world.I think people interrogated it too much, they’re bringing so much of his [superstar] presence into the thing which is far beyond what anybody was thinking going into it. He is known to the producers of the show and some of the cast, and he’s a gigantic fan of the show. As everybody knows, the show really eschews stunt casting – it’s never, ever done that.”
Regarding the online backlash and Sheeran’s on-set behaviour, Podeswa spoke about the Lego House and Thinking Out Loud singer in glowing terms.
“I was quite surprised about the reaction actually because I know he’s very well known and a successful singer but you’re in the bubble of the show — the cast are well known too, everybody is really well known…none of them can walk down the street without being followed. You don’t think about that very much in this context. He comes with no entourage. There’s nothing connected with him that’s in the least bit self-aware or self-conscious. The only thing I don’t feel great about is that Ed is such a lovely guy and really genuine and down to earth. He came into this with only lovely intentions to come and do a good job and sing well. So I think that’s the only drag.”
Well, nice guys have a tendency to get absolutely savaged in Game of Thrones. At least Ed’s character managed to make it out alive!
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