Kristian Nairn, who plays Hodor in Game of Thrones, speaks to news.com.au

EVERY day last week, thousands of people lined up for hours to catch a fleeting glimpse of this man’s pants. What makes them so special?

Irish actor Kristian Nairn arrives at the opening ceremony of the 36th Moscow International Film Festival on June 19, 2014 in Moscow. The festival will run until June 28, 2014. AFP PHOTO / VASILY MAXIMOV

EVERY day last week, thousands of people lined up for hours to catch a fleeting glimpse of this man’s pants.

That may seem rather insane, but this is no ordinary man. His name is Kristian Nairn, and he plays one of the most popular cult figures on television — Game of Thrones’ gentle, linguistically-challenged giant, Hodor.

Nairn’s costume was featured in the Game of Thrones exhibition at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art last week. It was displayed proudly alongside weapons, trinkets and other costumes from the show.

MORE: Fans go to ridiculous lengths for exhibition

“Hodor.”

“I never thought I’d see the day that my smelly old slacks would attract visitors,” Nairn tells news.com.au. “That costume hasn’t been washed in four seasons.”

Gross, right? Actually, it adds to the costume’s authenticity. If Nairn’s character is trudging endlessly through mud and gunk without a bath in sight, his clothes should be absolutely disgusting.

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Hodor is such a popular character because of his single, defining quirk. He can say only one word, which happens to be his own name. Early in the show, that made him a source of comic relief.

“Hodor.”

But Nairn’s role has become much darker in recent seasons, as he’s marched northwards into the frigid, desolate wasteland beyond The Wall. Hamstrung by his character’s linguistic defect, Nairn has been forced to convey serious emotions through his body language and facial expressions.

“We’re working with a world in which some of the subject matter is very heavy,” the Northern Irish actor says. “It’s a different style of acting. It’s one I really like... there are some pretty intense scenes.”

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Many of those scenes involve another character, Bran Stark, “warging” inside Hodor’s head, essentially possessing him, and using his body to commit violent acts.

“I don’t think he really likes it, initially,” Nairn says. “But I think he’s realised that it has to happen that way. Otherwise he would probably be dead, and his journey would be over.

“We saw an example of that at Craster’s Keep,” he says, referring to a scene in which Hodor kills another character, Locke. “In those circumstances, he kind of has understood that it’s the only way.”

“Hodor.”

Hodor flirted with death a little too closely in season four, first as the captive of the rebels at Craster’s Keep, then when he was attacked by a group of bizarre, undead skeletons during the final episode. Nairn doesn’t think George R.R. Martin will kill off his character, though.

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“I do feel like he’s kind of a super character. He’s there for a reason. He’s kind of too present throughout the storyline to just have no purpose,” Nairn says.

“Of course, knowing George, I’ll just be found dead down the road. You can buy him drinks, you can buy him presents, but he won’t tell me.”

“Hodor.”

Ultimately, Nairn believes Hodor is smarter than most Game of Thrones fans presume.

“I don’t think he is simple. That’s my interpretation of him. Some people think he is,” Nairn says. “He can follow basic commands. He knows when to be afraid.

“I just think that something has happened to him somehow to stunt his vocabulary,” he says. “I’d like to see, one day, what that was.”

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We may have stumbled upon the answer, quite accidentally, during a spurious discussion of Hodor’s taste in music.

“Hodor’s a bit of a rocker, actually. He likes a bit of Motorhead,” Nairn says. “Maybe too much headbanging. That’s the problem.”

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