Ed Sheeran "enjoyed" his 'Game of Thrones' cameo.
The 26-year-old singer made a fleeting appearance in the first episode of the hit HBO series' seventh season in July, and although he received harsh backlash for his role - which saw him play a Lannister soldier who had a chance encounter with Maisie Williams' Arya Stark - he was thrilled to be involved with the show.
Speaking to MTV News, he said: "No one wants to see me come back. I wanted to be a cameo in it, and I've done the cameo. I'm cool with it, though. I enjoyed it."
It isn't the first time the 'Castle on the Hill' hitmaker has defended his appearance on the show, as he previously dubbed the role as "f***ing awesome" after he was accused of deleting his Twitter account as a result of the criticism he received.
He wrote on Instagram shortly after the episode aired: "Last i'll say on this. I came off Twitter Coz I was always intending to come off Twitter, had nothing to do with what people said about my game of thrones cameo, because I am in game of thrones, why the hell would I worry what people thought about that. It's clearly f***in' awesome. Timing was just a coincidence, but believe what you want (sic)"
Meanwhile, the episode's director Jeremy Podeswa defended Ed's appearance.
He said: "I think Ed did a lovely job - he's a lovely actor and a lovely person. He was appropriate for the part because he needed to sing. If people didn't know who Ed was, they wouldn't have thought about it twice. The hoo-ha seems to be from things that are outside of the world of the show. In the world of the show he did a lovely job, and he looks like he belongs in that world.
"I think people interrogated it too much, they're bringing so much of his [superstar] presence into the thing which is far beyond what anybody was thinking going into it. He is known to the producers of the show and some of the cast, and he's a gigantic fan of the show. As everybody knows, the show really eschews stunt casting - it's never, ever done that."
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