“Game of Thrones” and “Peaky Blinders” alum Aidan Gillen waxed nostalgic about the golden age of British drama at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival and argued that there’s “too much” content clogging the airwaves for today’s TV consumers.
“I just think there’s so much stuff. Even the TV stuff now is being designed to try and give you these little [dopamine] hits now and then,” he said. “Even the sophisticated, high-end TV stuff is also being dumbed down a little to try and keep people interested.”
He added: “There’s too much on TV.”
The Irish screen star, who’s serving on the international competition jury this week in Transilvania, is also on hand to promote his latest films: 2025 Tribeca premiere “Re-Creation,” an Ireland-set drama from directors David Merriman and Jim Sheridan based on the real-life murder case of French producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier, and “Gorky Resort,” director Łukasz Połkowski’s historical drama about a young Polish lieutenant in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp.
Speaking to a full house during an hour-long masterclass at the Transilvania festival, Gillen opened up about his career on screen, reminiscing about iconic roles in series including “Game of Thrones,” “The Wire” and “Peaky Blinders” and describing how he broke into the British theater scene as a precocious teenager.
