Game Of Thrones is the stuff of fantasy for its young Scottish star

Fame awaits Richard Madden after landing a key role in HBO’s big-budget epic. Challenges, Cheap Rosetta Stone Software challenges, challenges thats all 24-year-old Richard Madden talks about. Well, perhaps not all, but the word challenge certainly features heavily in our conversation 10 times, to be exact. He also talks quickly, with the kind of endearing enthusiasm that comes from being a young actor whose star is very much on the rise, particularly now he has landed the biggest role of his life as Robb Stark in HBO fantasy drama Game Of Thrones.The hype will fully hit when the new series based on George RR Martins A Song Of Ice And Fire novels, and starring Lena Headey, Charles Dance, Sean Bean and fellow Scots Iain Glen and James Cosmo begins on Sky Atlantic next week. Its a landmark role for the young actor, and one that could make him a household name, given the runaway success of other HBO shows such as The Sopranos, Rome and The Wire. So, is he nervous about the possibility of fame?Thats a good question, says Madden, who grew up in Elderslie, near Paisley. Im not really letting myself think about that side of things. Ive thought about it in a productive, ambitious way which is, hopefully, if the show is good and my performance is good in it, then it might open other doors for me to get more work and keep progressing as an actor. In terms of getting recognised He trails off.Madden had an early taste of fame as a young teen in childrens TV series Barmy Aunt Boomerang. It was on a completely different scale, he continues. But, among my peers, I went through being known for a couple of years and all the great and bad things that come with that. It was strange to be that kid from television. At the age of 17 I had to make a decision about what I Rosetta Stone American English anted to do for the rest of my life, and I knew I needed to do acting as a job The experience, he says, taught him what might happen after Game Of Thrones. It set me up to try to embrace everything that comes. Ill take it in my stride, whatever happens. For now, though, he just wants to keep things grounded: he hopes that future recognition from Game Of Thrones, if and when it comes, is down to an appreciation of his work and will help him become a better actor, by getting more diverse jobs .Madden had a steep learning curve in the past. After joining the local youth acting school, PACE, to get more confidence before going to high school , his talent was spotted early. He was scouted for his first acting role at the age of 11, when he played alongside Jonny Lee Miller in the 2000 cinema adaptation of the Iain Banks novel Complicity. Madden played a young rape victim, an experience which didnt bode well for high school, he says, and led to bullying. It was a complex part for a child.It was strange dealing with issues that, at 11, I didnt understand. You know that rape is a bad thing but, sexually, you dont understand the violation of it, he remembers. But the good thing was I got to meet interesting people. I started working in a profession and had responsibilities like an adult. People had to speak to me like an adult, and I didnt want it any other way. I didnt want to be treated like a child because I was performing and doing my Rosetta Stone Software job just like the next actor was. Madden says he instantly loved acting. Despite this, the pressure at one point got too much although it certainly wasnt from his parents (his father worked for the fire service and his mother was a teachers assistant). I was about 15 and I felt I had to stop after experiences, he says, hesitating. He is clearly referring to the trouble he received at school which was, he says, quite difficult to swallow But at 17 going on 18, I had to make a decision about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I knew that I needed to do acting as a job, and I wanted to do it more than anything else. He attended the Royal Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow and never stopped working throughout, taking time to appear in theatre roles both in Glasgow at the Arches and the Citizens Theatre and in London. Since then, he has worked with the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Shakespeare Company and, in 2009, appeared in BBC Scotland drama Hope Springs. Today, he says, he cant imagine himself doing anything else.