John Bradley Of 'Game Of Thrones' Says The Show Changed His Negative Body Image

John Bradley’s self-esteem has skyrocketed since he was cast as the bookish yet brave Samwell Tarly on “Game of Thrones .”

The 30-year-old actor swung by “Conan” on Monday night, and host Conan O’Brien mentioned a speech Bradley delivered “from the heart” at the “Game of Thrones” wrap party in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which O’Brien happened to attend. In the speech, which O’Brien called “one of the nicest speeches I’ve heard in a long time,” Bradley talked about how the hit HBO series transcended the way he viewed himself.

In paraphrasing the speech on “Conan,” Bradley recalled that he was “somebody who grew up overweight and kind of unhappy because of it,” and he believed that “life is going to pass you by because of it.”  

“All the time when you go to bed and you think, ‘I’d give anything to wake up and not have this weight,’” Bradley said of how he used to view himself.

But then the role of the warm, funny and smart Samwell Tarly came along, and things began to change for Bradley.

While I was feeling bad about myself, David [Benioff] and Dan (D.B. Weiss], our producers, and everybody else connected to the show, they were looking for me. They were looking for exactly me. And it’s not just a case of they’re going to accept all of what I consider to be faults about myself, but they’re going to see them as virtues, and they’re going to be my key into this amazing experience and meeting all these amazing people.

If I’d have known that they were looking for me, and what kind of effect that was going to have on the rest of my life, then I’d have … I just wouldn’t have been able to believe it.

Thanks for this, Bradley.