Actor John Bradley, known to most people as Samwell Tarly from HBO’s Game of Thrones, recently set the record straight on the drama around a major plot reveal from the show’s seventh season.
Chatting with Isaac Fitzgerald, cohost of BuzzFeed News’ morning show AM to DM on Tuesday, Bradley talked about the moment when Gilly, played by Hannah Murray, essentially discovered who the real parents of Jon Snow (Kit Harington) were. The revelatory moment turned sour when some fans argued Samwell took credit for discovering it himself.
“You know what? People are obsessed with this,” Bradley said.
“A lot of people said Sam took a lot of the praise for Gilly finding out about Jon Snow, but I didn’t see Jorah Mormont going back to Daenerys and saying a guy called Samwell Tarly cured me of Greyscale.”
In Season 7, Episode 5, titled "Eastwatch," Gilly asked Sam what the word "annulment" means. He defined the term for her, and she continued to read the scroll. The scroll happened to be from one of the long-dead Citadel maesters who meticulously recorded everything he did.
Sam seemingly isn't listening when Gilly reveals that Jon's parents are Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. But in the finale from that season, "The Dragon and the Wolf," he tells Bran that he was the one who discovered the maesters' information about his friend's parentage.
People were pretty annoyed about it at the time too, sending tweets with disapproving GIFs.
Me, when Sam took credit for something Gilly found: #GameOfThrones
In fact, some people tweeted about the incident this year.
"Sam wouldn't even listen and then took credit," one person said on Twitter.
Gilly is the best GoT character because not only can she build fires and slay the whole single mom thing, she also solved the mystery of Jon’s birth ON ACCIDENT AFTER JUST LEARNING HOW TO READ! And Sam wouldn’t even listen and then took credit. Men are 🚮 in all the realms
Bradley stuck by his character's decision and said he didn't want to "rail on Gilly here, but [he] will."
"She read that out not knowing what it meant," Bradley said.
"When she discovered it, she was just saying it because she was happy that she’s able to read. So she wasn't saying it thinking it was significant. It was Sam who knows it was significant."
In the end, Bradley conceded a little bit, saying the most he'd give Gilly some credit.
"The best I’m willing to say is it was a 50/50 collaboration," he said.
You can watch the complete interview with Bradley below:
CORRECTION
Samwell Tarly's surname was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.