Kit Harington Blames His New Beard-Free Look On Two Particular ‘SNL’ Skits

Whether it was guest host Kit Harington’s nipple tassels or the upcoming eighth and final season premiere of his show Game of Thrones, last weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live put up some pretty solid ratings. Of course, the beardless Jon Snow wasn’t quite done with NBC Studios just yet. On Monday’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, the British actor dropped by to promote the upcoming Game of Thrones premiere and relish in the SNL limelight. He also explained why he was clean-shaven.

Fans of Harington’s luscious face locks were aghast to find out that his famous Jon Snow beard was completely gone when stepped out onto the stage at Studio 8H on Saturday. So, aside from the fact that Game of Thrones is coming to an end, why’d he do it Two of the night’s oddest sketches, of course. “They [shaved] me,” he explained. “There were various reasons I was cleanshaven. I had to play Michael Jackson and Winston Churchill. That’s a sentence I’ll never say again… It’s the first time I’ve had a reason to shave in a long time.”

Harington had plenty to say about the SNL hosting experience, including why he thought he’d “made a mistake”:

“Anyone who’s gonna host SNL don’t do what I did, which is, when they ask you, ‘What kind of things do you want to do Do you have any talents Do you have any things that you want to show off’ I thought, ‘I have zero talents.’ So I said, ‘I’ll do anything you want me to do. Any skit that you have. Anything that you’ve been holding back that you think is too controversial. I’ll do it.’ And they really took me at my word.”

Meyers, a former SNL head writer, used all of his comedic powers not to burst out laughing. “Don’t do that,” he giggled at one point. Then again, he knows what he’s talking about. “They all have like five of those,” Meyers said of the staff writers having various sketch ideas they’ve been holding onto. “They’re just waiting for someone to come in, who’s as innocent as you, who will make the mistake of saying that.”