Richard Madden didn’t even change his clothes before heading home from his final day on the “Game of Thrones” set. The infamous “Red Wedding” in “Game of Thrones” Season 3, Episode 9, gave Madden’s Robb Stark a shocking and violent death, as he and other high-ranking members of House Stark were massacred by Walder Frey’s (David Bradley) men. As for why Madden kept his Robb outfit on while traveling — fake blood and all — there wasn’t exactly a pressing reason. During a 2018 interview with GQ, the actor explained, “I just wanted to leave. I just wanted to get out.”
He then found himself on a flight, in tears. “I sobbed and sobbed on that Friday. I was hysterical, actually. I was so exhausted. I cried all the way home,” he shared with the outlet. “And then people moved, and the rows behind me moved. I was sobbing and covered in blood. I looked like I’d murdered someone and got on that flight.” Madden explained his emotional reaction by revealing that he doesn’t enjoy goodbyes — even though he was glad that his “Game of Thrones” tenure had come to an end.
Why Richard Madden was ready to leave Game of Thrones
Despite Robb Stark’s early and sudden death in “Game of Thrones,” Richard Madden was satisfied with departing the popular HBO series after just three seasons. Madden told GQ, “It was five years from the pilot until I finished filming. For any actor, five years is too long to play a part. I didn’t feel cheated at all. I was ready to leave.”
“It helped me so much with my career and experience,” Madden said in a Variety “Actors on Actors” conversation in 2019. “I learned a lot from shooting 30 hours of television. You really start to learn the trade doing that.” After “Game of Thrones,” Madden made a name for himself as an action star. His work has even made him a fan-favorite choice to play the next James Bond.