Will Bronn get his castle? - Meeting Jerome Flynn

Jerome Patrick Flynn was born in Bromley, Kent (UK) on 16 March 1963. He grew up in the rural parts of Kent. Jerome spent a lot of his childhood in the woodlands and fields surrounding their home. When he got back from school, he would go into the woods (often with his brother and sister). The family never had a lot of money and they were lucky enough to buy the house and surrounding land from a relative. But this meant that everyone had to chip in, to make it habitable. Being in a rural area, they had to grow their own food, but there were also chores like chopping logs of wood because there was no central heating. Jerome was never a big fan of the academic part of the school. A subject was only interesting for him when the teacher made it interesting. When he was in his teens Jerome took his first step in acting, by participating in school plays. He later says it was at that point that he discovered that girls found him much more interesting after he appeared in school plays. At one point his brother was directing a production of "The Crucibles" for the Sevenoaks Youth Theater. When one of the lead actors dropped out, Jerome filled in this role. After his experiences in the Youth Theatre, Jerome decided he wanted to pursue a career in acting. He loved being on stage pretending to be someone else and he also loved that people seemed to notice him more than before (especially girls). He dropped out of school and took a year off to travel. At the age of 18, he started a course in acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Over these years he appeared in theater productions all over the country. During the last year of his course, he started singing in a group called Carte Blanche and he toured the clubs. 

In 1986, Jerome appeared in the TV film "London's Burning" (picture above) as firefighter Rambo. In the same year, he played the role of soldier Franny in the "Monocled Mutineer". In the years following Jerome played in multiple British TV productions (like "Breaking up", "The Fear" and "Casualty"). In the early 90s Flynn landed a role in the TV series: "Soldier, Soldier". One of his co-stars was Robson Green. Now you might think, why is this important. Well after Flynn and Greene performed a version of The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody", record producer Simon Cowell (known for "The X-Factor" and "Britain's got Talent") persuaded them to record the song. It reached number 1 in the UK Charts in 1995 and it stayed there for 7 weeks. The duo Robson&Jerome was born. In the two years following the duo had two more number 1 singles and two number 1 albums. When I read this I almost fell of my chair, I never made that connection between Jerome the singer and Bronn. In the late 90s Jerome played in some more TV shows (like "Badger") before he took a break from acting in 2000. In 2007, however, he starred in and directed the low budget movie "Rude Tales". And almost 10 years after his 'retirement', it was confirmed that Jerome would play the role of Bronn in a new HBO series based on the "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels by George R.R. Martin. I am of course talking about "Game of Thrones" and the rest is history. Over the last years, Flynn also starred in "Ripper Street" as Detective Bennet Drake. The show is set in London's East End in the late 19th century, during the aftermath of the Jack the Ripper attacks.

I had my photo op with Jerome on Sunday, but I had already planned that I would want to see his panel on Saturday. I was not sure if I could see it on Sunday, because it was at the same time as Gaten Matarazzo's photo op. Turned out there was a huge queue at that photo op, so I was able to catch a small part of the panel. Anyway, let's talk about the panels first... 

Jerome seemed very relaxed during his panels. This wasn't his first visit to the Netherlands. He has friends in Amsterdam and he visits them regularly. On Sunday after the con he would travel to Amsterdam to pay them a visit. Of course there were a lot of questions about "Game of Thrones" and one of the most obvious question was: "Will Bronn get his castle?". It will be no surprise, that Jerome could not answer this question, but he did talk about how Bronn is a very determined man. he thinks Bronn will either die or get his castle. He also talked about how he is a big "Thronie" ("Game of Thrones" fan) too. He only reads his own script, so he doesn't find out what happens with the other characters and story arcs. Once in a while he and his friends have a "Thrones Night" and they all watch the episodes together.

When he was called to audition for "Game of Thrones", Jerome was on a sort of sabbatical. He bought a farm in Wales and took a break from the spotlight. At first he had his doubts about going to the audition. He did not know if Americans and doing a show about a fictional medieval European history would be a match made in heaven. But he decided to give it a try after he read some of the script. The night before the audition, he stayed at his brother's house and he hit his head against the door of the kitchen cabinet. This gave him a black eye and when he looked at himself in the mirror, he thought: I can pull this off. He got the part of Bronn and the rest is history. When the show started no one thought the show would turn out to be the big success it is today. Jerome also talked a bit about "Ripper Street" and about his singing career. Check out the video below for our registration of the panel on both Saturday and Sunday (as I already mentioned: I did not get the chance to catch a big part of the Sunday Panel, but I recorded some of it)

On Sunday it was time for the photo op with Jerome. Luckily Stevie (who joined us on Sunday) had a photo op too and I was not alone in the queue. We were both quite nervous, but Stevie already met Jerome earlier that day, when she went for an autograph. He was very friendly to her and that was good to know. When it was my turn I could not find my ticket, so that added to the stress haha. When I finally found it, I stepped into the booth. And there he was...the man behind one of my favorite "Game of Thrones" characters. Of course the photo op went pretty fast, but Jerome took his time to greet everyone and he really made you feel at ease. I can't wait to see what is going to happen to Bronn in the final epsiodes of "Game of Thrones". And of course get an answer to the burning question: Will Bronn get his castle?