During its long run, HBO’s epic fantasy show Game of Thrones featured many memorable characters. Besides the main heroes who appeared in almost every episode, such as Arya, Daenerys, and Jon a Tyrion, the show worked with countless other characters. One of them was The Mountain whose real name was Ser Gregor Clegane.
The fans of the show never saw him speak much but The Mountain was still an imposing figure and helped create one of the most memorable show-downs in Game of Thrones: the final fight between Gregor and his brother Sandor which led to both of their deaths. Let’s find out more about Gregor’s actor, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.
One of the first things you notice about Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is his remarkable height. It helps him tower over all of the other characters in the show and makes “the mountain” feel appropriate.
Björnsson comes from Iceland so it’d be a good idea to take a look at the average height there. Icelandic people are some of the tallest in the world. The average height for women is 5’6″ tall while men on average reach the height of 5’11”. That’s nothing in comparison to Hafþór who stands at 6’9″, or 2.06 meters if you’d prefer.
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He Has A Wife And Child
Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is now married but has dated a few women the public knows about before. He has a daughter named Theresa Líf with his former girlfriend Thelma Björk Steimann. He also dated Andrea Sif Jónsdóttir. The two met at a gym but broke up in early 2017.
Björnsson didn’t stay single forever, though, and in late 2017 met his future wife Kelsey Helson, who worked as a waitress in Canada at the time. The happy couple married in August 2018, as Hafþór announced on his Instagram in October of the same year. Their story proves that love doesn’t care about height since Kelsey is only 5’2″ (1.57 meters) tall.
He Is One Of The Younger GoT Cast Members
You might not realize it at first look but Björnsson is actually rather young. He was born on the 26th of November 1988 which means he’ll be 32 this year. This means he’s one of the younger members of the Game of Thrones cast since, for example, Emilia Clarke who played Daenerys Targaryen is two years older than Björnsson.
His height and build make Björnsson look older and fans noticed it, comparing him to Thomas Brodie-Sangster who was born in 1990 but still looks like a teenager compared to Björnsson. Then again, a baby faced actor would have never been able to play The Mountain as well as he can.
He Briefly Had A Sports Career
As has been established above, Björnsson is a really tall guy. So it was only natural that he would try his hand at sports.
He started out as a basketball player and began playing with Division I club Breiðablik in 2004, for which he played as a center. He then moved to another team but when the doctors discovered he was playing matches with a broken bone in his ankle, he had to have surgery. His sports career didn’t end with the injury, though, and he played many other matches until he had to retire from basketball at the age of 20 because of a knee injury.
He’s Also A Strongman
Probably the most famous strongman/bodybuilder come actor alive is Arnold Schwarzenegger but Björnsson’s career in this area is certainly impressive.
He started his strongman career in the late 2000s and scored a victory in several Icelandic contests back in 2010, most impressive of which was winning the title of the Strongest Man in Iceland. He later competed in the well-known contest World’s Strongest Man as a wild card. He scored 6th place in 2011 and 3rd place in 2012, 2013 and 2015. His moment of glory came when he won first place in 2018 and so became the first man from Iceland who managed to win the contest since 1996.
He Later Turned To Acting
Some actors always know they want to act while others eventually come to acting after they started in different areas, whether it’s modeling or sports. The second case was also Hafþór’s case, as he began acting while he was still competing in the strongman contests.
The Game of Thrones creators cast him as Ser Gregor Clegane for the fourth season of the show in August 2013. Playing Ser Gregor was Björnsson’s first acting role. He was also the third person to play The Mountain in the show, but the only actor who stayed with the part for more than one season.
He Demonstrates His Strength During Casting
When you apply for a part in such a popular show as Game of Thrones, you have to attend a casting. Especially if you have no previous acting experience like Björnsson and his casting was definitely an interesting experience.
During the casting session, one of the creators asked Björnsson if he would be able to lift a grown person over his head. Somebody else would just say yes and wouldn’t care to demonstrate, but Björnsson apparently did. He grabbed one of the crew members and lifted him up while laughing. His positive attitude was probably one of the reasons he got the part.
Filming Was Hard Work
Once Björnsson got the part, the hard work had begun. He had to find a way to combine the busy filming schedule with his need to eat a lot of food required for maintaining his physique. Björnsson needed to eat about 8 to 10 thousand calories a day and his acting contract for Game of Thrones even stated that he would require a lot of quality food throughout the day.
When it came to the filming, Björnsson said it was one of the hardest things he had ever done. When he was practicing the combat scenes, he had to do the same choreography over and over again for days and weeks before he mastered it.
Being Tall Is Hard Work
Besides his several injuries and health issues, Björnsson also struggles with everyday life challenges which might seem trivial to most people. When you’re 6ft 9inch tall, it’s difficult to move around in a world in which most people are under 6ft tall.
Björnsson explained in one interview that using regular seats is always problematic for him and he can get stuck if he’s not careful enough. He also admitted that his weight which at one time reached an astonishing 200 kilograms, makes it difficult for him to walk for a longer period of time since he gets tired at having to carry all the weight.
He’s Not What He Seems
The Mountain is one of the most brutal characters in Game of Thrones, and that’s certainly saying something. Nobody can forget the memorable fight in which he crushed his opponent’s skull. However, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson is very different from his most famous acting part.
He speaks well of his family and has an adorable little dog whom he named Asterix. He often posts pictures of his dog online and even included him in his cardio workouts.