‘Home of the Dragon’ Director on Aemond’s Nude Scene and ‘Mommy Points,’ That [SPOILER] Cameo and All of the Criston Cole Hate: ‘We All Have a Little bit of Criston in Us’

SPOILER ALERT: This text incorporates main spoilers for Episode 3 of HBO‘s “House of the Dragon” Season 2.

With one other “Home of the Dragon” episode comes one other burial.

Shortly after the funeral for younger Prince Jaehaerys, the Cargyll twins had been laid to relaxation after their brother-vs.-brother duel final week. For the primary time this season on “Home of the Dragon,” no main characters died — apart from a bunch of troopers from Home Blackwood and Home Bracken within the Battle of the Burning Mill.

Although it occurred offscreen, the primary official battle of the Dance of Dragons has been waged, and it left a whole lot of our bodies littered within the fields. Not removed from there, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) arrived on the historical, leaking fortress of Harrenhal and claimed it for himself with none bloodshed. Ser Simon Sturdy (Simon Russell Beale), instantly bent the knee to Daemon and supplied him a humble supper in return (and saved by accident addressing him as a prince as a substitute of king).

Lengthy thought of a cursed fortress for all of the dying its hallowed halls have seen, Harrenhal isn’t precisely a five-star resort for Daemon (or perhaps a two-star Airbnb). He begins having disturbing visions, together with one among younger Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock reprising her Season 1 function) stitching Jaehaerys’ head again on. The imaginative and prescient marks the primary time Alcock has returned to the collection after taking part in Rhaenyra for the primary half of Season 1.

King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) formally makes Larys Sturdy (Matthew Needham) his grasp of whispers. Larys convinces the king that he shouldn’t be a part of the warfare effort simply but, as his new hand Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) units out with Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), the brother of Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), and their troops. Tensions are excessive between the 2 knights, as Criston simply ousted Gwayne’s dad Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) as hand to the king. They narrowly survive a run-in with Daemon’s daughter Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia), who was scouting forward on her dragon. On Dragonstone, the black council advises Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) to assemble a military, and he or she sends her youngest youngsters, Joffrey, Viserys II and Aegon III, throughout the ocean with Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) for security.

Again in King’s Touchdown, Aegon goes out on a drunken night time of debauchery together with his Kingsguard buddies and runs into his brother Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), who’s cuddling bare with a prostitute.

“He wants a bit of affection. He’s a damaged boy, wants somebody to repair him. Season 1, it was a wealthy present filled with morally compromised grey characters. I needed to current a personality who, in these three episodes, that point in his life was simply full darkness,” Mitchell advised Selection. “Somebody requested me the opposite day whether or not or not I assumed Aemond had mommy points, and I don’t know if he had mommy points or relatively he simply need it to be cherished by his mother a bit of bit extra. Rising up, he by no means actually felt that unconditional love. He needed to discover surrogates elsewhere. He form of discovered it in his dragon, Vhagar, this older she-dragon, and he’s additionally discovered it with the madam. However whether or not or not it’s sufficient, if it’s a worthy sufficient surrogate, is questionable.”

The episode ends not with one other battle scene, however with a shock showdown of phrases, as Rhaenyra sneaks into King’s Touchdown to speak to Alicent and attempt to avert the warfare. Disguised as a septa, Rhaenyra ambushes Alicent whereas she’s praying at church. The 2 silently argue in regards to the rightful inheritor to King Viserys and his misinterpreted prophecy of the “prince that was promised” within the Tune of Ice and Fireplace. Director Geeta Patel, who additionally helmed the Season 2 finale, talks with Selection in regards to the tense dialog, Aemond’s nude scene and all of the hate Criston Cole has been getting on-line.

The key assembly between Rhaenyra and Alicent doesn’t seem within the unique “Fireplace & Blood” ebook, and it’s the primary time we’re seeing them meet since final season. How did you create this model new scene?

It was very purposeful that you’ve this second the place your protagonists truly confront one another. It was essential to the writers to have Rhaenyra and Alicent carry it residence and be the backbone of the season, as a result of that’s the backbone of the primary season: these two ladies’s relationship. With a purpose to broaden the world, we needed to have the ability to come again to them. What the writers did so nicely, and the actors, is by the top of Episode 3 they carry Episodes 1 and a pair of into it. It’s virtually like a litmus take a look at that if 1, 2 and three are working, you’re gonna really feel it. In the event that they’re not working, you gained’t really feel it as a result of it’s a whole lot of phrases.

Plenty of the sensation in that scene comes from Episode 8 of final season, which I used to be additionally fortunate sufficient to direct, as a result of that’s the place Viserys proves to Rhaenyra that he loves her, and he places her first as a result of he will get away from bed when he’s dying and walks throughout that throne room. That second, if it’s visceral sufficient, carries into Season 2. When Rhaenyra goes to see Alicent to be like, “Hey, we’ve to cease this warfare,” I really feel that she’s truly there selfishly for her personal emotional causes. “Did my father love me? As a result of I assumed he cherished me, after which he modified his thoughts with you.” I’m unsure she’s conscious that’s what’s driving her. That scene is crammed with all of the dramaturgy of every thing earlier than it.

The earlier two episodes ended with Blood & Cheese and the Cargyll twins battle, however this dialog between Rhaenyra and Alicent was virtually simply as tense. If you had been capturing it, how did you construct as much as this momentous second, the place they’re virtually dueling with their phrases?

Once we shot that scene, we gave it on a regular basis that we may. I knew that whenever you’re capturing one thing so huge and so they’re operating round on a regular basis doing completely different scenes from completely different episodes, it takes time for our actors to start out actually strolling in that episode. We saved speaking about Episode 8, we saved going again and revisiting these scenes and bringing them to life. If you see somebody you haven’t seen in years and there’s a battle that you simply had with them, or there’s one thing that they remind you of, it turns into contemporary instantly. Like, I used to be bullied once I was 14, and if someone treats me badly now at age 48, all of it simply hits as if I had been 14 once more. That was actually essential to carry to that scene. All the pieces’s coming again.

Between takes, we’d return to Episode 8 and the primary half of the primary season and their childhood and fill our recollections with it, in order that once they’re speaking to one another, it’s truly not about as we speak: It’s about yesterday. It was such an attractive, deep scene that it was like a superb wine. The extra they did it, the deeper they went in.

Milly Alcock additionally returns to the collection for the primary time on this episode. What was it like working together with her and capturing Daemon’s creepy imaginative and prescient?

I had by no means labored with Milly within the first season, in order that was attention-grabbing. When she and Matt got here in, the very first thing we talked about was their intimacy and the way a lot they trusted one another with one another’s emotions. The subsequent a part of it was getting inside Daemon’s head, as a result of, up till this level, he has been liable for killing somebody however hasn’t processed it. The explanation for this scene was for Daemon to really confront himself and see himself within the mirror.

The entire season is a stage of remedy for Daemon. He’s been operating so quick, he’s by no means actually stopped to really feel issues. When she turns and appears at him, I needed to ensure that with out phrases he could be confronted as a result of she’s seeing him and is aware of him. What Matt did so superbly is he allowed himself to really feel in that second. I bear in mind being in tears once we had been capturing that, as a result of the best way that Matt portrayed Daemon’s ache as she checked out him, I felt the regret and remorse — which we don’t see in Daemon fairly often.

Nudity and intercourse scenes have been part of “Sport of Thrones” because the starting, nevertheless it’s uncommon we see a important character fully nude, a lot much less a male character. How did you shoot that very weak scene, and what was it attempting to convey?

Ewan is such an excellent actor. He understands what he must do so as to painting Aemond. After I spoke with him initially in regards to the nudity, I mentioned to him, “Let’s simply undergo the story. In the event you don’t really feel comfy being nude, then you definitely’re not going to be nude.” We had been each on the identical web page in that approach. We began strolling by means of, and he walked me by means of his character. One factor about directing that’s actually essential is to give up to the actors, and the actors give up. It’s a mutual surrendering. On this case, Ewan knew his character so nicely that I used to be listening to him and strolling with him as we went by means of each episode earlier than this.

What we got here to is that Aemond was damage. He was bullied when he was little. Since he was damage, he had created this persona that was the precise reverse of how he was feeling. He created a persona of somebody who doesn’t give a fuck. That shift, from somebody who’s weak to actually watching him placed on his armor, was what we had been going for in that scene. It’s one of many few instances you see the younger little one in him and also you see the ache in him. Slowly he begins placing on his armor and when he stands up, the truth that he doesn’t care that you simply see his penis is such a robust visceral shift. And so, after all, Ewan was like, “I need to be totally nude in that second. It’s essential to me as a result of that’s who my character is. That’s what he would do.” And that’s what we did.

And now shifting on to Criston Cole, who everybody has mentioned goes to be essentially the most hated character this season. This episode is his first because the hand to the king. How did you need to painting this new standing stage for him, and do you suppose he’s actually essentially the most hated individual in Westeros?

I hated him within the first season. I felt every thing that we had been presupposed to really feel. The problem as a director for Episode 3 and Episode 8 was to really humanize him. The opening scene is him having a second of tension, of being misplaced after which being known as to motion. It’s his first day of being the king’s hand, and I’m hoping that second may be very relatable. We’ve all felt it the place you’re feeling impostor syndrome, and that you simply don’t actually belong right here.

With Criston Cole, I actually needed to insert standpoint. Watching him and having a second of tension and strolling with him downstairs, passing the lads with a steady shot going into the council chamber, that was deliberately designed in order that we’d really feel him for as soon as. We might be in his area, relatively than everybody else watching him. Plenty of instances the shortage of liking somebody comes from not being of their standpoint. Once we’re in that area, we see every thing occurring at that desk. That was one method to start out bringing his dimension out and begin constructing to what’s going to occur within the season finale, the place I feel you’re going to actually perceive him.

He’s a really attention-grabbing character by the point you get to the season finale. There’s a whole lot of issues that we are going to relate to and we will probably be embarrassed to narrate to. What he shares with us in Episode 8 is fairly superior — all of us have a little bit of Criston Cole in us. That’s what we’re constructing. There’s this vulnerability in Episode 3, after which it retains constructing from there and by the point you get to Episode 8, he has this stunning second the place he shares what he thinks in regards to the world and what he thinks about warfare.

This interview has been edited and condensed.