But to that point, it’s obvious that his grandchildren by his daughter are probably not the sons of their father, but he sticks to the conceit that they are and that everyone must believe that. In your mind, why does he stand on that hill?
I think he’s doing it to protect Rhaenyra and the fact that she’s the heir. He’s not blind to it. I never thought that he was ignorant or stupid. But he says to Rhaenyra very early on that your reputation is everything, you now have to serve the realm. And in this scene where he reinforces the idea of the prophecy to her, he’s saying, “This isn’t about you. None of this is about you. You’re not above duty and you’re not above your mission. You’re not above the bigger picture.” Which he understood to be this prophecy, this dream about the future of mankind in that world. Which we see comes through in the original series. So, I think it was more to protect Rhaenyra from loose-lip people because he understood the danger of gossip and how people talk. I think that’s why he was quick to silence everybody. To protect Rhaenyra, not even Alicent could allude to that in front of him. I think there was a scene where he kind of warned her a little bit about just keeping her mouth shut.
Your last episode is episode eight, am I correct?
Yes.
When you got the last five, was there any scene, any sequence that when you looked at it you were like, “O.K. This is daunting. That’s a moment I need to prep for”?
I think there were many scenes. Some were more daunting than others and some were really enjoyable. People talk about episode 8, but I really loved episode three. I love when they go on the hunts and he sat in this one seat through the whole thing and people are coming and going and he’s having to sit there and deal with everybody. And the sort of madness starts to get to him at that point the more drunk he gets and things start to build in. And the guilt of the death of his wife, the idea that this prophecy might not be true, and the ridiculousness of his hand suggesting that Rhaenyra marries a three-year-old son. He’s dealing with all that stuff. And then, slowly, the job is getting to him and breaking him down to the point where he does actually go outside and break down. And I think that one of the things that was human about him was how being a king you are constantly being pulled in so many different directions all at once. And I don’t think, in some respects, he was the right man for that particular job. I don’t think he was equipped with what it takes from your soul, because it really does. But I think the most daunting scene I did on it was in the first episode where I talked to Rhaenyra about the prophecy. That was a tough one for me. And even Milly [Alcock]. We re-shot some of that because it was Milly’s first day, I think. And she was in this massive scene with me with all this information flying at her. And we hadn’t established a rhythm with each other at that point. Luckily, we were able to go back and have another shot at it. But that was difficult, that exposition or stuff, for me as an actor, that’s hard to get my head round. So, I had to really grab that and make myself just forget it, it’s not about you. Just go in there and grab it and tell her like your life depends on it. She needs to know this information. And it seems to work, but that was quite a challenging moment for me.
The other aspect of your performance in the series is the king is suffering numerous ailments. He’s sick many times over his reign. Did you feel you had to plot out how sick he was in your arc?
I can’t bear it when I see people stretching out the process of this thing, so much of it comes naturally. That’s where it comes naturally to me. I’m being really honest.
No, no. I get it.
That stuff comes very quickly to me. I struggle sometimes with dialogue that I can’t make believable. That’s where my battle with acting comes in. If I’m struggling with dialogue or I don’t believe something, then I’m in trouble. Then, I feel self-conscious and then that’s the whole school of acting that I never learned because I didn’t go to acting school. So, that’s where I feel like I need the tools. But in terms of mapping his physicality and things like that, no. I had quite a clear picture. We started shooting with episode seven, so he was already lost an arm and he’s already beginning to rot and things like that. These little things started to drip in through the rehearsal process even. And one of them was, I remember a few days before we started shooting, I says, “I think I’d like him to have a cane. Can I have a cane?” It’s almost like, “Where this wound started?” On the bottom of his back, then it’s eaten more and more and more and just debilitated him more and more. So, let’s get him a cane. I’ve tried to put as many things in there as I can, pulling on characters like the Elephant Man and things like that that I love so much. In fact, I’m digressing, but this is a cast of Joseph Merrick‘s face.*
*Considine shows a white cast of Merrick’s face on the zoom screen
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
That’s incredible.
I love that. So, that was sort of big. So, it’s pulling in those elements. We talked about it, this thing on his face getting cancerous and eating his flesh. And I really love Richard Hambleton, the New York artist, the street artist. And I’ve watched a documentary on him, and by the end of it, I think he got cancer in his face. He has scoliosis. And I remember I said to Miguel, I said, “Look, watch this documentary on Hambleton.” And I sent him some pictures. I said, “I think that’s where Viserys should end up at the end.” And so, there were all these things that were all feeding it. And it happened quite naturally. It was quite interesting starting in seven and then we went back to one, and he’s this young sort of man again, and then I jump forward. But now, it seemed to happen all quite naturally. You just made choices and you stick to them and that’s it.
And another scene that informed the pain he was in, in eight was early on in that episode, he’s having his bandages changed and he’s near death and he knows it. And he refuses his medication, and Rhaenyra comes back. And he’s in such pain whenever he’s moved. He can’t even be touched anymore because he’s in too much pain. And so, when it came to this scene where I walked to the throne, it informed the way I did it because I thought for this guy to walk through the Red Keep to make his way all the way down through there into that throne room wearing those heavy clothes and that crown would be hell. It would just be hell. And so, I really took my time on it. It must have taken me 10 minutes to walk down that throne room. And I did it so slowly. I feel a bit scared that I’m wasting everybody’s time. But then I went, “You know what, man? If you don’t jump in now and be brave, you’ll regret it.” So, I just did it and I made everybody watch this painful walk. And regretfully, have to do it another hundred times. But it worked. And it turned up for Rhaenyra looking at the throne like it was climbing Mount Everest to him, that walk to the throne. He could barely move. And this is the last time… He knows it’s the last time he’s ever going to ascend those stairs and go in. But if you’re alive to the process when you work in them, these little things come your way. And if you’re open to them, you can use them. And it informs other parts of the performance if that makes sense.
It 100% does. And two quick questions in regard to that scene. One, was it always in the script that the crown would fall off and Matt would…
No.
So, you guys figured that out on set?
No, that was an accident, that fell off my head. I was climbing the stairs and it fell off my head and crashed to the floor. And Matt picked it up and carried me and we went on the throne. And then, there was just this moment where I looked at Matt and he looked at me. And then, I bowed my head and he put the crown on my head. It says everything about their relationship, it says everything. But it was an accident. I’ve directed a couple of things myself and I went, “That’s the moment.” And if we’re not careful, we’re going to lose that. And I said to Geeta, “We’ve got to keep that in. We’ve got to keep that moment in.” So many times on so many other jobs, that would’ve been a blooper, “His crown fall off, isn’t that funny?” And I went, “This isn’t a blooper, this is gold.” And so, I just made sure that every time I climbed the steps the crown fell off so they had to keep it in. So, that was my only thing, was to make sure, as I’m climbing, that it falls. So, there was no way that they couldn’t not use it. I went, “I’m just going to make sure that that happens every time.” And it became a beautiful moment. And credit to Geeta for keeping that in it. Sometimes, when you’re alive to the process of it, happy accidents can happen that can tell the story for you. And that’s a moment that did.
Just to clarify, you said you began filmming with episode seven. Was the shoot that much out of order? Was that because of location or talent availability? I’m surprised you didn’t start with the first block of episodes. Especially with a new series.
Me too. It would’ve been wonderful to start at the beginning. [Laughs.] No, you rarely shoot in story order anyway. But I think, with myself going on that physical journey, I found it quite helpful, to be honest with you. But I don’t know what dictated it. I really don’t. We were starting with seven. We shot a big block of that, and then we went to the studio and shot …the eye for an eye scene. Apparently, when Miguel cut that, that was the scene that he showed HBO and they got season two [greenlight] off the back of that scene. They were like, “Great. This is going to be good.” The COVID thing was a pain in the ass. But some days you were shooting episode two and then the next day, episode four. Sometimes, rarely, you were shooting two different episodes on the same day. That happened a few times as well, as I remember. But that had to be difficult for me with my different looks and things like that. But you learn to jump around and I think you’ve got to have a massive grasp of the story in that sense. So, as long as you’re on top of the story and as long as you’re on top of those scripts, and I always try to learn everything a week in advance so I was always ahead of myself and knew what was coming. It was funny in the early days, particularly auditions where nobody knew who anybody was really. And they’re going, “Are we related somehow?” But no, it was a tough job, but we just all ground it out and it’s not something that’s rare to shoot at story order anyway. Although, I thought we would shoot episode by episode, not necessarily with order and structure of the episode. But everything, I think, I’ve done in the past, I think has always been episodic. So, that did surprise me that we were jumping around so much.
“House of The Dragon” is available on HBO and Max.
