--- title: Here's Why 'Thrones' Character Bran Stark Has a Creepy Stare description: Isaac Hempstead Wright explained his reasoning behind his 'Game of Thrones' character Bran Stark's intense stares while on Jimmy Kimmel canonical: https://time.com/5573331/bran-stark-stare-kimmel/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-18T16:34:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:42.203Z og:title: Here's Why 'Thrones' Character Bran Stark Has a Creepy Stare og:description: Actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright explained his reasoning on Jimmy Kimmel og:url: https://time.com/5573331/bran-stark-stare-kimmel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fa9c17a20fee95b/6989488709208f2355413af5/game-of-thones-season-8-episode-2-bran-winterfell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3089 og:image:height: 1738 og:image:alt: game-of-thones-season-8-episode-2-bran-winterfell og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why 'Thrones' Character Bran Stark Has a Creepy Stare twitter:description: Actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright explained his reasoning on Jimmy Kimmel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fa9c17a20fee95b/6989488709208f2355413af5/game-of-thones-season-8-episode-2-bran-winterfell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Game of Thrones_ Actor Reveals the Perfectly Acceptable Reason for His 'Creepy Bran Stare' > Sponsored content. 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Helen Sloan/HBO  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Apr 18, 2019 4:34 PM UTC Actor [Isaac Hempstead Wright](http://time.com/5007756/game-of-thrones-isaac-hempstead-wright-bran-stark-theory/) — better known, perhaps, as [Bran Stark](http://time.com/5570835/game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-1/) or the Three-Eyed Raven on [_Game of Thrones_ ](http://time.com/5572646/game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-2-photos/)— dropped by Jimmy Kimmel’s show this week, and he helped clear up some confusion around why his character is constantly staring, creepily and intensely, at the other residents of Winterfell. Hempstead Wright’s Bran is a character marked by early tragedy; after [Jaime Lannister](http://time.com/5375086/game-of-thrones-nikolaj-coster-waldau-jaime-lannister-douche/) pushed him off a high ledge in the first episode of the show, he was relegated to a wheelchair. His further connection to the supernatural has led him to morph over the seasons into an all-knowing yet admittedly socially awkward figure. At the end of season eight’s premiere, Jaime and Bran have just spotted each other in the Winterfell courtyard for the first time. Kimmel decided to bring it up. “The look you gave him…” Kimmel said. “I’m kind of getting good at this sort of intense stare,” Hempstead Wright explained. “But it’s kind of aided by the fact that I’m completely blind when I’m on set. I don’t have my glasses, and I don’t have contact lenses.” He also related an anecdote from filming on the previous season with [Sophie Turner](http://time.com/5563114/maisie-williams-sophie-turner-friendship/), who plays Sansa Stark. “She said to me, ‘Isaac, your stare is like — you’re staring into my soul’ and I was like, ‘I can’t see you!'” So there we have it: get the Three-Eyed Raven some glasses, and maybe he wouldn’t be so angsty around his family after all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5573331/bran-stark-stare-kimmel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5573331/bran-stark-stare-kimmel/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Actor Reveals the Perfectly Acceptable Reason for His 'Creepy Bran Stare'","datePublished":"2019-04-18T16:34:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:42.203Z","description":"He's got a vision issue","url":"https://time.com/5573331/bran-stark-stare-kimmel/","keywords":["Newsfeed","game of thrones","Late Night Television","clickmonsters"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fa9c17a20fee95b/6989488709208f2355413af5/game-of-thones-season-8-episode-2-bran-winterfell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0fa9c17a20fee95b/6989488709208f2355413af5/game-of-thones-season-8-episode-2-bran-winterfell.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"game-of-thones-season-8-episode-2-bran-winterfell","caption":"Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark in 'Game of Thrones.'","creditText":"Helen Sloan/HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5573331/bran-stark-stare-kimmel/","name":"Game of Thrones Actor Reveals the Perfectly Acceptable Reason for His 'Creepy Bran Stare'"}}]}] ```