Image via HBO
Below are spoilers for House of the Dragon, including for Season 1’s Episode 8.
King Viserys Targaryen is dead. Throughout the eight episodes of House of the Dragonhas released so far, the current Westeros king, played by Paddy Considine, did all he could to hold together the kingdom under a Targaryen ruler so as not to plunge the world into war. Despite his best efforts, his passing will do just that, sending the remaining heirs into a civil war amongst one another for control of the throne—thanks in part to a miscommunication about the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy on his deathbed.
Throughout his reign, Viserys is viewed as a good man and a kind king, but those things often don’t go well together when you need to make swift rulings. Regardless of your stance on Viserys as a king, Considine’s performance is unimpeachably great, and it will be sad to see him depart the series. For a lot of American audiences, this is likely the first time they’ve seen Considine on a stage this large, but he’s amassed quite the CV throughout his career working alongside Edgar Wright, starring in Peaky Blinders, and even as a writer/director with 2011’s Tyrannosaur and 2017’s Journeyman.
His directorial eye seemingly came in handy while filming this episode, “The Lord of the Tides,” as a happy accident between him and Daemon actor Matt Smith gave the installment one of the best moments in Game of Thrones history. Considine realized that, too, saying, “These accidents can sometimes turn into really poignant moments. As an actor, if you’re given that playground, and you know that you have the allowance to do that by the powers that be, then it just makes the job so much more satisfactory.”
In the wake of his departure from House of the Dragon, Complex sat down with Considine to talk about the physicality of the role, more on that moment between him and Smith, whether or not Viserys knew the truth about Rhaenyra’s kids, and much more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
When you first signed on, were you aware that Viserys was always going to kind of bite the bullet at some point in the first season? Or was that not readily apparent until you got more scripts?
No, no, I always knew that it was one season and out. I knew that. When I initially got sent the scripts, I got sent the first three episodes, but in our early conversations, I was always aware that it was a one-season deal. So I knew that there would be a demise; I just didn’t quite fully know the arc until I got all the scripts. What I was really happy about was having one season but to be able to tell a story and have a beginning and an endpoint like that. And to fully develop a character and go on a journey with him was a real blessing. But I always knew that he was not going to make it.
In moments where you have to be like, really drugged out, how do you go about finding the truth of those moments? I feel like that’s something that could easily slide into parody, so what’s your approach?
Well, it sounds morbid, but it’s true: I had parents that suffered. My dad got cancer, and his decline was really rapid. In weeks, he became like what Viserys pretty much became in the final episode. So I’d been around that kind of sickness and watched that kind of suffering. Some of it’s quite horrific, really, to think about that and the awful sounds that my father made as he was in his last days of life. These gargling sounds, fighting for breath, and then also being high on painkilling drugs and things like that.
Without sounding pretentious, sometimes, as actors, you want to take those things and put them somewhere to use in some way because, I suppose, when you’ve seen something that close up that’s so horrific, you’re referring to something that’s very, very real. That’s all I ever wanted to do with Viserys, was imbue him with sincerity and—realness sounds too Drag Race-y [Laughs.], but you know what I’m getting at. I’ve seen suffering and been around it in that way, watching someone die and literally watching that demise. There are things that you can use.
It was strange, those final scenes in the bed with Viserys. We were shooting those over a couple of days, and [the] oxygen levels in my body went right down because my brain was basically telling my body that I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. It’s a strange thing the brain does; it starts to tell your body that you’re sick if you behave sickly. So I had to be taken out because literally, I was, like, nearly passing out from doing those things. Which sounds quite dramatic, but it’s true. It’s a really strange thing. When you start to act and adopt a certain physicality, your body starts to react to it, too. I injured my hip. It doesn’t look like it, but I injured my hip playing Viserys. [Laughs.]
Oh, man!
Just take after take of that final walk down the throne room, take after take after take—my hip went out. It’s only just in the last few weeks got to a place where I feel like it’s back to where it should have been. There are all those little things. Then your oxygen levels [start] dropping, and you go, “I don’t want to be dramatic here...” It’s interesting what the brain starts to tell the body.
I wanted to ask about that physicality. How did you and [director] Geeta Vasant Patel approach that sequence? I read in an interview that you wanted to find ways to “put the dragon in Viserys.” The way it’s framed, it almost looks like you’re a dragon crawling toward the throne. Did you two have a discussion about that?
No, not at all. And that’s really fascinating. I think it’s amazing that people have made that comparison. I love that, but it’s not my idea. It’s not something I came up with. Maybe it’s Geeta. She got it so brilliantly on a camera shot. I don’t know if that was her idea to frame it in such a way, but I think that’s a wonderful thing. I wish I could say that I thought about that, but I didn’t.
I am a big fan of an artist called Richard Hamilton. I’ve watched a documentary on him. He was someone who got cancer later in life. He was a drug addict, and he got [what] looked like scoliosis. I watched that, and I’d spoken to [co-showrunner and director] Miguel [Sapochnik] about visuals of him, going, “This is kind of where Viserys should end up physically.” A lot of it was informed by where the first lesion started at the base of his spine and how this thing’s just eating off his body. He’s just dying a very, very slow death. So that wasn’t a creative choice for me, but that’s amazing that visually, people are making that comparison to an old dragon. I think that’s fantastic.
Not only do you have that physical element, but there’s the makeup portion, too. Do you find that helpful in your performance? Is it hindering?
I think it is [both]. It’s what I’ve said in other interviews about the fantastic costumes as well. You wear the costumes, and they do inform how you stand. At the end of the day, you’ve got to play the human; you can’t play the costume. It’s the same with makeup. You’ve got to be able to perform through it and not let the makeup perform for you—if that makes sense. They know what they’re doing; the makeups were fantastic. It’s just sad, really, that people thought that he was an old man. On set, they go, “Old Viserys.” I’m going, “He’s not old!”
He’s 52!
He hasn’t suddenly aged more than Otto, Daemon, or anyone. I said, “He’s got a skin-eating disease, and he’s dying slowly.” Plus, he’s poisoned by this chair that’s rejected him. But makeup, it’s just one of those things you have to go through. I used to love watching the images of Boris Karloff in the makeup chair and think, “One day, I’d love to do that.” And then you do it. Well, you get a 4 o’clock call, and you’re in there before anyone else. Everyone skips on at 9 o’clock, and you’re going, “Oh, fuck off,” [Laughs]. getting fed up with it. [Laughs]. Then, when you wrap, you gotta take it all off and say, “See you tomorrow,” growling at everyone as they leave. But, no, the makeup was massively important.
I used to hear stories of Jim Carrey playing the Grinch, [how he’d] get this locked-in syndrome thing and panic. I understand a bit about it. This sounds really a really silly comparison because I’m not head-to-toe this different kind of creature, but there is a bit of anxiety that creeps in every so often through the day that goes, “I just want this off my face, just get it off my face, just get it off my plate.” You’ve just got to sit with it and meditate it out of you. Even with the wigs early on, I was getting a bit like it from wearing a wig all day. So what I did was, on my days off, I’d just wear a tight wooly hat around the house and get used to having something tight on my head all the time, being the sensitive creature that I am. [Laughs].
All these little things add to it. They embellish the performance massively. The makeup was fantastic; the VFX were fantastic. But you’ve still got to play that character. If you look at manifestations of different interpretations of Frankenstein, only Karloff is able to bring that empathy to that character in a way. That’s him through that makeup. That’s what you’re aiming to do with it.
Can you tell me more about that moment with you and Matt on the throne? That’s really Viserys and Daemon’s moment to have some closure, and it’s really sweet and tender. I’m curious about your perspective on how it came together.
The last time Viserys sees him before that, Daemon rejects him. They have this series of events where Viserys is banishing him. Viserys, when he knows that he’s gonna die, reaches out to Daemon and says, “Come home,” but Daemon’s pride won’t let him. Viserys and Daemon are not characters that are gonna sit down and have a heartfelt discussion about their feelings.
The moment that you’re talking about in Episode 8 was an accident, actually. I was climbing the stairs, and the crown fell off my head. Matt just picked it up. We carried on with the take, I sat on the throne, and he placed it on my head. Afterward, we went to Geeta and said, “Look, that’s the moment.” I’ve done films in the past where stuff like that had happened, these beautiful accidents, and they’ve been ignored or not acknowledged.
I just remember going to Geeta and saying, “Please keep that in. Please, let’s keep that as part of the scene because it’s so poignant.” Thank God Geeta is aware enough to have seen that as a really big moment because it wasn’t on paper. That beautiful moment where Viserys slumps into the chair, and then his brother puts that crown on his head—you don’t need any words for that. It’s done. That’s just a testament to how engrossed we were in this story. And how much we wanted to tell this story, really too.
These accidents can sometimes turn into really poignant moments. As an actor, if you are given that playground, and you know that you have the allowance to do that by the powers that be, then it just makes the job so much more satisfactory. It’s a fantastic moment.
I spoke with Milly a few weeks ago and know it can be a little more difficult to find natural moments like that—especially with the dialogue—but that’s a wonderful bit of happenstance to have occur.
You’ve hired people like us, too. You’ve got to trust us. We want to tell the story. We want to make it as good as we possibly can.
House of the Dragon feels like it can be viewed through a few different prisms. It can be a Shakespearean drama, a genre story, or an extension of the Game of Thrones world. Was there a particular element that you keyed into and were able to view it through?
I just felt like I was given this character, and it was my job to imbue him with as much humanity as I possibly could. The job was to get beyond the dialogue and get to what the scenes were about. I never played the world of Game of Thrones. I never felt that I played that role. I saw a really human story, a tragic story, and the love story about a man who, very early on, loses the love of his life and never recovers from it. [He] carries the guilt of that through his entire life, right to his dying last breath until he’s reunited.
I think the minute they burn Aemma’s body at her funeral pyre, that man starts to die anyway. That’s what I’ve played; I was playing this tragedy for a love that was not existent on-screen anymore. That’s what Viserys saw every time he looks at Rhaenyra. That’s why he couldn’t chastise, that’s why he couldn’t go fully in on her because all he ever saw was Aemma. She was the last remaining piece of Aemma. I was just playing this tragic character.
To get it straight, this guy didn’t choose to kill his wife and save his son. His wife was dying. His son was going to die. They were both going to die. The choice was: to save the son, you’re going to have to put your wife through a terrible, horrific procedure. That’s the guilt. That’s the choice he made—not to kill her. If it was a choice between her and the child—in my world, I as Viserys Targaryen would have absolutely saved her. No doubt about it.
So you’ve got this very, very tragic man who’s given this position, this seat, and all he’s having to deal with is other people’s demands, other people’s needs. All he’s trying to do is keep peace in that kingdom because he has a secret of a prophecy that’s far greater than the world that they’re in, than their complaints, than their desires. He’s the manifestation of everything that they fight for in this seat, the power that they want, whatever it is that they crave—this is what it does to you. It corrupts; it destroys. This is what your fighting does to me. It’s a cursed seat. He says that to Rhaenyra very early on because there was all these ideas around him being progressive and making Rhaenyra the heir. It’s like, I’m giving my daughter a curse. That’s how I always perceived it. This thing you fight over is a cursed seat. And you all want it. I say to her, “This is the most dangerous seat in the realm.”
Do you think that the love he has for Rhaenyra is why he never gets to the position where he can publicly acknowledge the truth about Jacae and Luce? Because I don’t think Viserys is a fool, let alone about that.
He knows the truth about this. He’d just do anything to protect Rhaenyra. Otherwise, it makes him look kind of silly, and he’s not. He knows full well. He’s not an idiot. He’s living in ignorance. He warns Alicent—I can’t remember the episode—but he warns her not to speak of it, to leave it, and not speak because it’s dangerous and it’s treasonous. But he’s not a fool.
Looking back on your experience, what do you love about Viserys?
He’s the best character I’ve ever played in my life. I was able to bring so many elements to him. To play that kind of character, in that kind of world, was an absolute joy. To play somebody that was not corrupted by power and to play someone with his virtues was the pleasure of the job. To me, he’s the most fully fleshed character I’ve ever had the privilege to play. He’s got so many dimensions.
It’s a juggling act, doing all those things with all those different characters, all the while having this knowledge in the background. It was a treat. If I think back to episode three, I’m sitting on this throne. Just that one episode alone, I got to dance with all those brilliant actors. It was just an absolute joy. I loved him. There are so many dimensions to him. I don’t think I’ll ever get a character like him ever again.
When I spoke with Milly, she mentioned how you recommended Amyl and the Sniffers to her. I asked her which of their songs she felt best represented Rhaenyra and wanted to ask you a version of that same question. So, if you had to choose one song that best represents Viserys, what would it be?
“Lightshow,” by Robert Pollard, from the album From a Compound Eye.
I haven’t heard that one.
Have a listen.
Are you going to direct again anytime soon?
I’m not sure. It’s not in my immediate plans to direct again. At the minute, I’m enjoying acting so much that I just want to keep trying to find interesting roles. I don’t have any immediate plans. I find writing music is a lot more fulfilling to me at this point in my life. But whether I do again, I don’t know. Maybe.