Isaac Hempstead Wright's College Experience Has Been 'Chaos' Because of 'Game of Thrones'

College is a hard enough transition for a "normal" teenager. But imagine what it's like when you're the star of the most popular show on television. Isaac Hempstead Wright, a.k.a. Bran Stark from Game of Thrones, opened up about the challenges he faced starting college, and the differences in how he was treated by everyone upon his arrival at school.

"I knew people would be excited and there'd be a bit of fuss," the 19-year-old actor told Esquire UK of his dual career as an actor and a student at Birmingham University. "But I could not anticipate the chaos."

"I went to university and it was just ...a massacre" in our new shoot, @Isaac_H_Wright reflects on growing up on #GameofThrones and his doomed attempt to go to university. https://t.co/NI5TuPgCUi
— Esquire UK (@EsquireUK) April 1, 2019

Whereas his classmates could come and go as they pleased, Hempstead Wright's every last move was being watched—and reported about. In 2017, The Telegraph ran a story titled "Bran Stark does Freshers Week: Game of Thrones star gets mobbed after starting at Birmingham University." Even his student email address ended up causing a problem.

"My address got published," he said. "I couldn't walk out of my halls without having to take a selfie. Eventually I got assigned a campus police officer. There were so many tweets. And because your email is public domain, I got like, billions of emails from people going: 'Hi, three-eyed raven!' I was just trying to find out where my next lecture was."

While the actor is able to laugh at it a bit now, especially since he's had a chance to settle in, he admitted that not being able to enjoy a true college experience is disappointing.

"I had the nicest flatmates," he said, "But it made it quite difficult to make friends. I don't think I'll ever be able to have a normal university experience, which is kind of sad. I couldn't relax and go out and have a drink or get drunk or whatever, because if I did someone would be like: 'I saw Bran and he was all f***ed up.'"

Now that Game of Thrones is done filming forever, maybe things will get better for the star—once everyone is finally let in on how the series ends, that is.

This article also appears on Mental Floss.