His face will forever be recognisable as one of the most hated TV villains of all time.
But Jack Gleeson — who rose to fame playing the sadistic boy-king Joffrey Baratheon (technically Lannister) in Game of Thrones — has made a conscious effort to fade into oblivion.
After his characterwas killed off in 2014, ending Gleeson's three-year tenure on the wildly popular show, the 26-year-old Irish actor has not appeared in one single project.
Jack Gleeson portraying Joffrey Baratheon in a scene from Game of Thrones. Photo / HBO
And it's not that he's having a hard time securing work, which can happen for actors who play such memorable characters, he doesn't want a bar of fame, fortune or the industry.
He resides by himself in a London flat, which he says is nothing special, so as to not feel like a "celebrity".
"It's maybe the status thing that I find uncomfortable," he told Vulture.
"People can be wealthy and not be mean, but this status thing … some people when they become famous, they feel better, they feel more worthy. That's what makes me feel really uncomfortable. I try to eschew that as much as possible.
"When I started doing Game of Thrones perhaps the reality was made too real for me. The lifestyle that comes with being an actor in a successful TV show isn't something I gravitate towards.
"I'm happy to sacrifice a big pay cheque for my happiness if that's not too corny a thing to say. It's probably more naive than mature to say that, maybe, but that's how I feel."
Jack Gleeson made a surprise red carpet appearance at the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere in New York. Photos / HBO, AP
Given he was only a baby-faced teenager when he signed on to the fantasy drama, which is in its final season and airs Mondays on Foxtel, Gleeson said he came to realise how "boring" and "tedious" acting was during filming.
"You go and put your make-up on, put your costume on, wait in your caravan-trailer thing for an hour, and then you go to the set, and you film for three minutes, and then they change around the lights and the camera angle, and you wait for an hour, and then you film for another three minutes," he said.
"It's a very boring, tedious process."
Despite only appearing on GoT for three years, Gleeson is said to be worth a solid $US6 million.
Obviously, the money wasn't enough to lure him into other silver screen projects, so Gleeson turned his attention to studying philosophy and theology at Trinity College in Dublin, where he was elected a scholar in 2012.
The face of evil. Photo / HBO
"I'd like to be an academic, a philosophy lecturer if possible. I'd do a Masters in Ancient Hebrew maybe and a PhD hopefully, if I get in," he said.
While he's not planning on returning to acting since his early retirement, Gleeson did not rule out a possible comeback down the track when he spoke to the Herald Sun.
"I'm in a small theatre company. We produce, write and perform our own work. I prefer that kind of thing, collaborating with friends, than acting in a blockbuster," he said.
"My whole life I wanted to be a big famous successful actor,
"I suppose something just changed. I still love acting, and I see myself acting in the future, but that kind of spark is not there anymore, and I don't know why."
