It's hard to imagine anyone other than steely eyed, brooding Kit Harington as Jon Snow.
Turns out, he had just the thing "Game of Thrones" showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were looking for during the casting process.
Harington was virtually unknown in the television and film industry when he auditioned for the part in 2010. The London-born actor racked up some impressive credits on his theater résumé, landing the lead in the original stage production of "War Horse" at the National Theatre.
His performance caught the attention of Benioff and Weiss, who invited him to read a scene — a conversation between Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister from the pilot episode.
Something was awry, however. Harington showed up with a shiner.
"I had a black eye as I'd been in a scrap," Harington told The Daily Mail Online's Craig Mclean. "But I think it might have helped. You know, 'Who's the kid with the black eye?'"
It must have worked. In an interview with Rolling Stone's Stephen Rodrick, Weiss said he remembered thinking, "This is what Jon Snow looks like," and whispering to Benioff, "Please let this kid be good."
More striking than his black eye was Harington's quiet intensity.
"It wasn't a studied thing — some kind of actor who practices brooding in the mirror," Benioff says. "It was a capacity to say a lot without saying a lot."
We'll see if Jon Snow is up to talking come April 24, when "Game of Thrones" season six premieres.
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