Actor Brian Cox could have starred in Season 1 of Game of Thrones as Robert Baratheon, but the actor passed on the role. Mark Addy got the part and played it memorably until the character's demise in the show's seventh episode. Cox recently discussed passing on the show all those years ago, saying he has no regrets, in part because the character died so soon.

"[That] one was only limited, I'd be dead within four episodes," Cox told GQ. Baratheon actually died in Episode 7, but he was definitely a short-lived character. "So I saw the shortness of that," Cox added.

Baratheon was not only written to be a short-lived character, but the pay was not very good at the time, Cox said. "It was early days, so the fees were not particularly wonderful. They did very well on it, but initially it was 'suck it and see,'" he said.