Speaking to this fan at Focus Features’ The World’s End party last night at San Diego Comic-Con, Mark Gatiss told a funny story of trying to get Benedict Cumberbatch onto Game of Thrones.

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Gatiss is executive producer and co-star on Sherlock where he plays the infamous Mycroft, and recently he filmed a yet-to-be-revealed role for HBO’s Thrones season 4. All we know about the role is that he spent a week filming it in Belfast and it’s already completed.

But while Gatiss was on set, he did the Cumberbitches (we did confirm he knows Benedict’s fans by that name) a big favor. Gatiss made an attempt to get Cumberbatch on the television adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s creation.

Gatiss told us that one day he was speaking to Game of Thrones show runners about increasing their female audience and suggested they bring Cumberbatch on. Thanks to the runaway success with Sherlock, he knows that female fans would follow him over to Thrones.

When the suggestion left his lips on the season 4 set, the make up artist who was dressing him up turned to him and said, “Benedict Cumberbatch? Ewwwww.” Immediately, Gatiss’ plan was foiled.

If Cumberbatch never gets a role on Game of Thrones, you can blame that make up artist for shedding him in a negative light. Gatiss had a big laugh when retelling the story to us.

Cumberbatch plays the titular role on Sherlock and will star in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug this December. He is optioned for a fourth series of Sherlock, but there’s no word yet on when that will film. A trailer for The Fifth Estate, in which he plays WikiLeaks Julian Assange, was released earlier this week.

Check out our recap of yesterday’s Sherlock panel where we saw footage from series 3 for the first time.