Long before Jon Snow died and came back to life with a man bun, the onetime Watchman's beard was his most recognizable physical attribute. But there's one thing about his most loyal companion (aside from Ghost, of course) that no one ever noticed: It was drawn on.
Kit Harington was only 22 when he was first cast on Game of Thrones as the bastard son of Eddard "Ned" Stark (right, sure) in 2009 — a period Harington describes to InStyle as "innocent times." Back then, growing a beard was decidedly not his forte; lucky for Harington, his hairless face convinced showrunners he could convincingly portray a 17-year-old Snow on screen.
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But as we all know by now, there's no Jon Snow without Jon Snow's beard, which Harington was instructed to grow to "look rougher" for the role at the last minute before shooting for the pilot began.
So, he says, he grew a beard — barely. After all, Harington was young and had yet to attempt to go that route with his grooming regimen. The crew had no choice but to fake it 'til they made it. "I pushed out this scruffy thing that they had to draw on and fill in," Harington tells the publication. "But, weirdly, I remember it as a rite of passage. I’d never tried before, and I grew this thing, and it changed me. I felt like a man … a young man.”
We know no king but the king in the North whose name is Stark — who, at one point, definitely used an eyebrow pencil to make his beard look fuller.