In 2017, Ed Sheeran was at the height of his popularity. Divide had come out in the spring, and “Shape of You” dominated the airwaves. Given its own history of musician cameos, you might be forgiven for the team behind what was still one of the biggest TV shows on the planet at the time, Game of Thrones, putting two and two together and letting Sheeran take a side quest in Westeros. And yet.
When Sheeran showed up as a Lannister soldier (with musical inclinations) appropriately named Eddie, encountered by Arya just after she’s gotten her revenge on the Freys in “Dragonstone”, it immediately became a topic of controversy. Was Sheeran too famous for a cameo? Was it too much of a reminder of the real world in Westeros? Did people just find him really annoying, anyway?
Nearly a decade later, Sheeran’s inclined to agree with all three.
“I think at the time I was very omnipresent and just everywhere. So, I think it was quite jarring,” Sheeran recently reflected in an appearance on Benny Blanco’s Friends Keep Secrets podcast, before adding that the adverse reaction he got from audiences “[happened] quite a lot in my career. I just get shit on for things.”
Sheeran was quick to point out that he was far from the only musician to appear on the show at the time. “Members of Coldplay [were] at the Red Wedding. [Gary Lightbody] from Snow Patrol’s in there. Chris Stapleton’s in it as, like, a White Walker,” Sheeran added. But the key difference between those cameos and his own was, as he said, his omnipresence. The scene, even though Sheeran’s soldier leaves much of the talking to other Lannisters and Arya herself, is drowned out by his presence and recognizability. He’s just there, Ed Sheeran in Lannister armor, not even a helmet or much makeup to change his appearance.
But for all the public grumbling, he doesn’t regret being part of the show near the apex of its popularity. “What I said is, ‘People love that show. If anyone gets asked to be in that show, it’s an instant yes,'” Sheeran concluded. “I said yes. I enjoyed doing it.”
He probably less enjoyed the implication in the season 8 premiere that he got his face roasted off by dragonfire off-screen.
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Source: Gizmodo