Ladies, don't make Ser Brienne of Tarth have to find you and defend Pod's honor.
Game of Thrones Season 8 has already been very good to Podrick Payne (Daniel Portman), giving the supporting character his own featured rendition of the "Jenny of Oldstones" song in Episode 2, which only helped boost his popularity. One of his most, um, memorable scenes was back in Season 3, when Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) paid for the young lad to visit a brothel, and all three prostitutes returned Pod's money because they enjoyed the experience so much they did it for free.
Tyrion and Bronn were shocked and impressed and demanded all the details. And apparently many female fans have been trying to get the same story in person -- while getting a little too handsy.
Actor Daniel Portman, now age 27, talked to Esquire about the highs and lows of Game of Thrones giving him a reputation for being a sex god. On the low side, some fans can't seem to keep their hands to themselves:
I’ve been grabbed by so many… like the amount of like older, older women who are very…[makes grabbing motion] . . . What can you do? You know? Obviously tell them not to do it. It hasn't happened for a while. In this day and age you’d think that people would be able to separate reality from fiction. I don't want to say it comes with the territory, but, you know, people are crazy about it. It's certainly not cool.
It is not cool. It's not cool when a guy does it to a girl and it's not cool when a girl does it to a guy. Keep your hands to yourself. Period.
On the upside, though, Daniel Portman admitted he has enjoyed other benefits of Pod's reputation. When Game of Thrones fans meet him, he said, they want to know about the brothel scene. What makes Pod so good at sex? Is it the size or how he uses it, so to speak? Here's what he usually tells fans:
A magician never reveals his secrets. If I fucking knew my life would be very different. I was 20 when that happened, so it was kind of like a kid in a candy shop. When you tell a 20-year-old actor, who’s sort of stumbled onto this big TV show, that all of a sudden you're meant to be Casanova, people all over the world wonder whether or not it's true. I would be lying if I said that that hadn't been fun.
Yeah, it must be fun to instantly be given a great reputation in bed -- but only from people who blur the line between reality and fiction. And some of those people, as he noted, also cross the line into groping him without consent.
The Bachelor's Colton Underwood recently had a similar experience, when he said he was "grabbed and touched inappropriately while people were throwing cameras in my face" at an event.
Daniel Portman's fellow Game of Thrones star Kit Harington has spoken out on the objectification of men as well as women, calling it "demeaning" when he's reduced to "a head of hair or a set of looks." He said it made him uncomfortable to be sexualized and objectified in that way, arguing there's a double standard for men and women on that front.
Game of Thrones Season 8 only has four episodes left, including The Battle of Winterfell this Sunday, April 28. On the eve of battle, Pod shocked Tyrion -- again -- with his beautiful singing voice. Daniel Portman thanked fans for their responses to the song:
The official Game of Thrones account posted a stunning lyric video for Florence + the Machine's version of "Jenny of Oldstones" after Episode 2. Season 8, Episode 3 is going to be intense, and the battle airs from 9 to 10:25 p.m. EST on HBO.
