Daniel Portman might play the only truly good character on Game Of Thrones, with the added bonus of being good in bed. While right now Portman's Podrick is preparing for a battle with the White Walkers along with the rest of Winterfell, previously he was the source of comedic relief. In a season 3 bit, virginal Podrick is rewarded by Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) with a night with sex workers who later refuse payment on account of the character's sexual prowess. This reputation has followed the Portman outside of Westeros and into real life — but that hasn't always been a good thing.
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"When you tell a 20-year-old actor, who’s sort of stumbled onto this big TV show, that all of a sudden you're meant to be Casanova, people all over the world wonder whether or not it's true," the actor told Esquire in a recent profile. "I would be lying if I said that that hadn't been fun."
But, he continued, his character's sexuality has also prompted fans to act inappropriately around him IRL.
“I’ve been grabbed by so many… like the amount of like older, older women who are very...” he explained to the outlet, making a grabbing gesture. “What can you do? You know? Obviously tell them not to do it. It hasn't happened for a while. In this day and age you’d think that people would be able to separate reality from fiction. I don't want to say it comes with the territory, but, you know, people are crazy about it. It's certainly not cool.”
Game Of Thrones fans have often struggled with separating the show from reality. In 2013, Lena Headey, who plays Cersei on the HBO show, told Conan O'Brien that fans are not necessarily kind to her when they see her out and about.
"I guess it's a compliment," she told the host. "When you're buying a table and someone's like, 'You that fucking bitch off of [Game Of Thrones]?'"
For both Headey and Portman, their time on the show is coming to an end. The series finale airs May 19 — if the White Walkers don't get to them first.