'Game of Thrones' Cast: The Mountain's Soft Side Exposed, See Adorable New PHOTO
His character is one of the fiercest and potentially most dangerous on Game of Thrones, but the actor behind The Mountain has such a surprising soft side off-set.
Hafthor Julius Bjornsson is an Icelandic actor and strongman who portrays The Mountain, known for being one of the scariest combatants in Westeros, especially after his brutal murder of Oberyn Martell during Tyrion's (Peter Dinklage) trial by combat for the murder of Joffrey. Though he too died during the battle, he managed to first overcome Oberyn and squeeze in his skull.
He was then resurrected by Qyburn during season five and resurfaced in the season five finale as a new silent warrior for Cersei (Lena Headey), who had taken a vow of silence until all of her enemies had been destroyed. And it appears he is set to her bidding in season six, as evidenced by the trailer when he is threatened by the Faith Militant—and Cersei incites violence.
So while his character is pretty violent, hostile and evil (let's not forget that he's the one who harshly harmed his younger brother The Hound as a child by holding his face to the fire because he played with one of his toys), Bjornsson is so clearly not. And nothing proves that more than an Instagram photo he posted of himself literally cuddling with a puppy.
A photo posted by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (@thorbjornsson) on Mar 20, 2016 at 4:11am PDT
The image, which was taken in Melbourne, Australia, is even captioned as "friends," which only adds to the cuteness.
Bjornsson also smiles at the puppy in the photo, melting hearts.
And of course, after it was shared on a Reddit thread, the clever comments from fans who found the photo to be endearing rolled in.
The best one plays on the fact that his character is known as The Mountain, while his little brother is referred to as The Hound.
"The mountain holding the hound," the fan wrote.
Another decided to play the comment as if The Mountain himself had a puppy for a pet, playing on the actual surname the character possesses.
"Do you know what The Mountain's dog eats out of? HIS CLEGANEBOWL," the fan wrote.
And while this soft side certainly won't be featured on the show, fans will see Bjornsson on screen again soon. Game of Thrones season 6 premieres Sunday, April 24 at 9 p.m. on HBO.
