Aussie actor Matt Nable reveals he turned down Game of Thrones

Aussie actor Matt Nable could have starred in the biggest TV show ever made, but he turned down the role. Here’s why.

Matt Nable turned down one of the biggest shows of all time.

Aussie actor Matt Nable has revealed he turned down the gig of a lifetime.

Nable, a respected name in the Australian film and television landscape, was advised by his manager at the time not to take a series regular job on what became one of the biggest shows ever globally, Game of Thrones.

“I turned down Game of Thrones, right,” Nable said on the latest edition of The Matty Johns Podcast.

“I was coming off a film called Riddick with Vin Diesel. And that was a relatively big film. It was a big lead role. And my agent came to me and said, ‘look, there’s a role, it's a season regular in the next season of Game of Thrones.”

Nable turned down Game of Thrones, a series which gripped the world. Picture: HBO

Nable explained the offer came through around 2013 or 14, in the early years of the Game of Thrones phenomenon.

The show itself, based on George R.R. Martin’s books, launched in 2011 and ran through eight seasons and 73 episodes to wrap in 2019.

“I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, I’m not into dragons,” he said of his response at the time. “I’ve no interest. But I knew it was a huge show on HBO and so, the offer was there. My agent said no.

“This new prestige wave of TV was just beginning, it wasn’t anywhere near as prolific as it is now. And so he said, ‘no, we’ll hang out for a movie, don’t worry about it’.”

Matt Nable could have been a GOT icon. (Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage)

Matty Johns was chatting with Nable when the actor made the revelation.

A year or so later, Nable landed a role on US TV series, Arrow, playing supervillain Ra’s al Ghul.

“They came to me and there was an offer of this thing Arrow and I said, ‘what’s Arrow?’

“And I said ‘oh, that’s the guy doing the chin ups, isn’t it’? You know? And I said yeah, ‘I’m not doing that’. The offer came through. And you know, my wife looked at the offer … she said, ‘pack your bags, you’re doing it’. Being honest, that was great fun.”

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Nable, 51, famously played rugby league before becoming an actor. His big film credits include Killer Elite, Jasper Jones and The Dry while he has appeared on local TV shows like Barracuda, Hyde & Seek, Blue Murder: Killer Cop, Mr Inbetween and Underbelly: Badness.

In the wide-ranging interview with Johns, Nable revealed he narrowly missed out on two other big US shows, Yellowstone and The Walking Dead.

Nable didn’t have the greatest time with Mel Gibson, director of Hacksaw Ridge.

Nable also worked with Australian actor and director Mel Gibson in acclaimed 2016 film, Hacksaw Ridge.

While praising Gibson as a “really good filmmaker”, he didn’t enjoy the project.

“I didn’t have a good experience with Mel,” Nable revealed. “I gotta be honest, but I will say this, I think I might have come across Mel on a bad day.”