Jack Gleeson, who played the cruel, woman-torturing Joffrey Baratheon on Game of Thrones, weighed in on the misogyny debate that has plagued the HBO show this season.
Since his character was one of the main perpetrators of the violence and sexual abuse of women on the show, Gleeson had a unique perspective on whether it should depict those actions as often as it does. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Gleeson said that he has not watched the series since he left because he cannot suspend his disbelief after being on set, so he cannot comment on the infamous Sansa rape scene. But Gleeson admitted that past representations of sexual violence may been “unfair.”
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When asked if he found it difficult to film some of the scenes where he abused women, Gleeson replied:
Yeah, of course; it’s a tricky thing when you are representing misogyny in that way because I wouldn’t say the show ever implicitly condones misogyny or any kind of violence towards women. But, perhaps, it’s still unfair or unjust to represent it even if the gloss on the representation is a negative one.
Obviously as a 23-year-old man, I can never put myself into the mindset of a woman who has been sexually assaulted, but I think that sometimes you have to represent awful things happening onscreen even if they’re for entertainment because you have to expose the brutality of them, because the chances are you’re not going to see that anywhere. So there’s a chance it engages some kind of empathy but it is a gray area. It might be very traumatic and stressful to watch those scenes.
The show has also come under fire—like many HBO shows before it—for excessive female nudity. Despite not being a regular viewer, Gleeson said he supports the instances of male nudity he’s heard about from friends and colleagues.
As I say, I don’t watch it so I can’t really comment, but I have heard that there is male nudity — so I think that is one good thing, to not just objectify women but also objectify the beauty of the male genitalia! We’re all objects together.
The 23-year-old Gleeson said last year that he plans to retire from acting.
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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com