Last night, NBC rang in the 1,500th episode (!) of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with help from Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington. To celebrate the milestone, the TV star broke out a bold cover of “Drops of Jupiter” by Train while playing (?) the piano. Harington puts his whole self into the rendition, which you can see for yourself when watching the performance below.
The video opens on Harington, dressed in a black suit and playing a grand piano covered in flower petals and burning candles. After the opening section, Harington immediately starts belting out the lyrics to “Drops of Jupiter” so loudly that you can see the veins popping out of his neck. Once the rest of Fallon’s band starts playing the backing track, Harington doubles down, his face turning red at points as he sings — or rather yells off-tune with plenty of gusto — every line. It’s like watching someone go hard at karaoke. He did, indeed, straight up go for it.
It turns out this was part of an ongoing wish for Jimmy Fallon. For years, the host has been trying to get his white whale idea “Straight Up Goes for It” approved. “We wanted somebody to come out and straight-up sing ‘Drops of Jupiter’ by the band Train. That’s it. That’s the whole idea,” explained Fallon during the Thursday night episode. “We’ve been pitching it for years to dozens of people, famous people that you know and love, both singers who sing in movies, dance, and sing, and they actually have music out. They all passed on it. But not tonight. Tonight that changes because we finally have someone who has the guts to do it.”
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Afterwards, Harington sat down for an interview with Fallon where he admitted he originally hesitated when presented with the idea. “I had a lot of thoughts when you sent me that. Like, a lot,” said the actor. “And the sensible part of my brain, the bit that said, ‘You’re not a singer, you have no connection to this song, it’s of no relevance to anything you’re talking about on the show,’ said don’t do it. But there was another little part of my brain, right? The bit that gets me in trouble, that was like, ‘But what if you’re brilliant?’”
It’s always a welcome treat to see a celebrity having fun and not taking themselves too seriously, especially someone like Harington whose career was defined by a deadly serious show that caused him to have “mental health difficulties”. Harington has since been working on getting to a better place in his personal life and memorizing lines for his current projects. He recently filmed an episode of Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, and he’ll be appearing in theaters later this year as part of Marvel’s Eternals.
