"I was a bit of a late developer and everyone was saying, 'Whatever you do, don't shave,'" he recalls, "and I hadn't really started shaving.
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Soon he was standing next to the legendary Pat "Bomber" Roach in a quarry trying to look like a fearsome warrior. McCann's first acting gig was 25 years ago, when he stumbled across an open casting call for Ron Howard's Willow while hitchhiking in Wales. Rory McCann hits the red carpet for the Game Of Thrones season three premiere in Santa Monica. (It's currently moored in the Highland region of Wester Ross, a place that inspired the young George RR Martin.) 'I was a bit of a late developer … I remember rubbing the soot from a kettle on to my bumfluff to make it look more like I had a beard' "Home for me is my boat, really," he says. He's accumulated a collection of swords and armour from his various roles in historical and fantasy movies such as Solomon Kane and Clash Of The Titans, but doesn't have anywhere to display them. The idea of the Hound as a wandering ronin echoes McCann's unconventional lifestyle. Or maybe he just needs a cuddle." A hug looks unlikely: McCann is something of a hulk already and trained for over three weeks for a one-on-one fight scene in Season Three that he claims will change the Hound forever. "But he's got issues, he's the product of a brutal past. "He's essentially an outlaw." In the simplified economy of Westeros, surely his deadly skillset would make him attractive to potential employers, even without a reference? "There's probably not many people who can overpower the Hound," he admits. So, newly unleashed, where is Clegane's head at for season three? "By disrespecting Joffrey publicly, he really signed his own death warrant," sighs McCann. And when, at the end of season two, he memorably resigned from the post of royal bodyguard – "Fuck the king," he muttered – everyone was suddenly on Team Hound.
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Whenever the Hound edged towards heroism – like saving young Sansa Stark from sexual assault – it sparked off a new round of breathless fan fiction. But under all the scars and muck, there's a soulfulness to McCann's performance. With his Freddy Krueger face and disagreeable fealty to a callow king, Clegane should be a clear-cut baddie, someone to hate just as much as spiteful nyaff Joffrey. The Hound has done his part to keep the population down, cleaving folk in twain with grim efficiency.