This is a nightmare.
It was kind of a fun night,
in a weird way.
We rehearsed that for months
and months leading up to it.
Ultimately, it's like a dance.
It's like choreography.
It was really cool.
And we were like,
"Okay, let's do this."
Episode six was one of the big leaps
for us because you're not only jumping
forward ten years in time,
but you're recasting.
You're recasting the show
midway through.
We always spoke of it
as our second pilot.
You come in on Rhaenyra giving birth.
Then the slow reveal being that this is
her third and that much time has passed.
There's a ten-year time jump.
You see her now husband, Laenor.
Harwin Strong, he's the actual father
of all of these children.
Viserys is slowly deteriorating.
And Alicent, meanwhile, is strong and in
her prime and sort of running things.
There's a lot of ground to cover.
Making a determined time jump
and then changing the main cast,
it was just a brilliant way to do it.
We talked a lot about who should shift
into being older versions of themselves.
And we felt that Rhaenyra, Alicent,
Laena, and Laenor were important.
They were all interacting
with each other heavily.
And they had experienced
that passage of time together.
And it was a good way
of grounding the time jump.
The Queen has requested that the child
be brought to her immediately.
Why?
I remember the phrase
that Ryan said about Rhaenyra,
which is, "She needs to be punk rock."
Nonconventional.
You're looking at the Targaryen line.
You're looking at the Emilia Clarke
association further down the line.
You know, you're looking at the woman
who set everything in motion.
And that has to be a force of nature.
Somebody with intelligence
and feels otherworldly.
And that's Emma.
Emma does not
fit into a slot that is easy.
Emma is such a striking, unique presence.
When I first saw them in the audition,
it was like I couldn't imagine the role
being played by anybody else.
With Alicent and Rhaenyra, we were
focusing on the adult versions first.
I had to keep reminding everybody
the people that were going to be leading
the charge were going to be their
younger versions.
Milly Alcock, she read and it was
just a gift from the gods.
We were very lucky.
She is a remarkable version
for a younger Emma.
I see them in the costume, and I'm like,
"Is that what I'll Oh, I look great."
Rhaenyra, you should
be resting after your labors.
Olivia is probably
the most seasoned actress of them.
We wanted her in the show.
She did such a strong audition.
We got Olivia to read for Rhaenyra
as well,
and she did astonishing reads
for both of them.
It became clearer that
she would be better suited to Alicent.
And certainly once we'd met Emily,
the pair of them were wonderful.
Olivia, I've been in awe
of her work for years.
And so, to play the younger version
of her is a blessing.
Miguel and Ryan had said
Alicent is probably the character
that changes the most in that time jump.
There are multiple things
that we both portrayed through Alicent
that connects
the two characters together.
But where my Alicent leaves
and where hers begins,
they are almost completely
different people.
If Rhaenyra comes into power,
your very life could be forfeit.
I do feel like we lucked out
with our Alicents and our Rhaenyras.
I think, for me,
it's always about the energy.
Milly and Emily reflected the energy
of Emma and Olivia.
The show is very demanding, just
in terms of the sheer number of actors,
but also the quality of the performer
because they're deeply nuanced roles.
Kate brought forward an amazing pool.
It took a lot of doing, but we were able
to put together a hell of a cast.
A boy, I just heard.
-Yes.
-Well done.
In order to play Laenor
as we find him in episode six,
I really had to know exactly
who he was before the time jump.
When I was cast first and started
filming, I looked up,
and I saw this person walk in.
And I looked at him
and then he looked at me.
We've seen each other
across the room, and I was like
I said, "Are you me?"
And he went, "Yes!"
I had some talks with Miguel, and he gave
me a few tricks about the character
that he would say
to the other girls as well, I think.
There are similar things
that I'm guessing
they'll say to all of
us about our characters.
I haven't met them.
It's gonna be exciting to see who they
are and how they interpret the character.
I've never done a part
where I've shared with an actor before.
I asked to meet them,
and Miguel was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah," and never set it up.
So, I was like, "I think this is
a strategic move on their part."
Here's a complicated thing
because even when you're not, kind of,
watching that work, you are building
something together.
When I am queen,
I will create a new order.
It was really important that Miguel
direct episode six to set the tone
for the time jump 'cause the visual tone
of the show changes
and becomes less original Game of Thrones
and more specific to House of the Dragon.
We made the decision, that instead
of jumping between characters
as you normally would, to stay with each
character for a much longer time,
so you could settle into their world
and into their head.
It just roots you into each of their
worlds and where they are right away.
It was new actors playing new roles.
We were going to spend more time
with the characters, moving with them.
We're saying to you,
"This person that you got used to, Milly,
is no longer Rhaenyra. She's Emma."
We wanted our audience to have an
opportunity to really examine
that particular actor and feel
comfortable with them.
And this seemed like a really
good way to do it.
For five episodes, an audience have
sat with this person,
have fallen in love with this person,
have developed affection for them.
And then, suddenly, I'm going to walk
in and change their face and body,
and tell them to like me.
You come in
on the back foot in a way.
The moment Rhaenyra gives birth
until she meets Alicent
was not in the original script.
-She wants to see him.
-Now?
And I thought, "If we'll have this set,
I would like us to inhabit it properly."
Which is why the opening actually follows
our characters
in a single continuous-take
all the way through it.
You're turning back, right?
We need you to come in on this
relationship
that you've completely bought.
I don't think there's any other way of
buying it, than spending time with them.
-What happy news this morning!
-Indeed, Your Grace.
We needed everybody to, kind of, jump in.
And the feeling is, if, if you're going
to hang in for the first twenty minutes,
and realize what's going on, and follow
it, then you'll be in for the ride.
Action!
Well, we know that we've got
the two characters,
so we have to take elements of one
across to the other and vice versa.
And you do it to make it look
practically the best that you can.
We used elements of some of the very
early episodes of the plating.
The wig is, obviously,
of the same color palette.
It's lots of little things that we did,
things like eyebrows and lip shape.
I normally find a mole or a freckle or
something and, and continue that across.
We go for a more youthful look
to get the change-over between cast.
Working with Olivia, it was really
interesting to see
the development of the character,
having jumped on the years.
And when we see her,
she's a really confident queen.
We used fantastic fabrics on her,
really luxurious and extravagant.
And it just carried on
the evolvement of the character.
Six bravo, take two.
Come aboard on echo and golf.
Action!
The change of age.
The change of social situation.
I dressed up Milly
and I dressed up Emma.
They are two different personality,
two different actress.
This is the difference between
a teenager and a woman.
The thing that I really
like about it is that
Actually, when I think about myself
as a younger person,
I don't always recognize them,
or I perceive them to be a different
person to the one I am now.
I think the poetry in the form is that
there's lots that carries through,
but we allow that younger self to be
a different person to an extent.
Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke's portrayal
of Rhaenyra and Alicent are so compelling
that I think you have no choice but to
buckling up and going along for the ride.
We're in Pensos because I really
wanted to sh**t something in Spain.
And, gradually, I was talking myself out
of doing any of the fun stuff
on the show and generally getting
stuck in, like, a quarry in Belfast,
which is where I usually spend most
of my time sh**ting.
So, we had seen these photos of this
beautiful Moorish castle in Spain.
I loved that castle from the first time
Jim showed us pictures of it.
'Cause it looks like something
from Game of Thrones,
because the exterior is Moorish
and the interior is, sort of,
Italian Revival, and it's a fantasy
place that's real.
When I saw the castle,
I was like, "Where is it?"
And then you see it up on a hill
and it was just beautiful.
It's something when you're on-location
that's just special.
I think it's important. I think a show
like this, a lot of it is studio-based.
And I think the more big, grand location
stuff you can do, the better, really.
'Cause it needs to feel outdoors
and it needs to have scale.
To Aegon the Conqueror,
the exalted forebear.
-Aegon the Conqueror.
-To Aegon.
It is a stunning location.
And when you come here,
'cause it's such a solid-looking castle,
you've got no idea how ornate
the interior is.
So we wanted to preserve
that surprise, if you like.
In some ways,
as a concept artist, you can relax a bit,
because the architecture's already there.
It's already sort of been designed for
you. It's just a case of re-creating it.
Somewhere as old as that,
the first time that was seen,
birds had been living in it
for years and years and years.
So it needed a real thorough
kind of hazmat clean.
We had to paint the whole thing.
Painted all the walls in darker tones.
We built library shelves in there
and turned the whole kind of top floor
of the courtyard into Daemon's library.
We created about 2000 books
in the end.
But we cheated it, because you only see
the front 50 mil of the spine.
And we would cast them out in biscuit
foam, which is a lightweight material.
And the finish
is what makes it, really.
You couldn't tell
they weren't full books in the end.
The library was quite challenging.
But the beauty of it is when the light
comes through,
down the center of the courtyard.
The light that hits
all the different furniture
and color and leather
and texture and fabric.
It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
They are using us.
Refreshing, isn't it?
The art department did an amazing job.
It looked so natural and it looked that
it's always been there,
that at the end,
they ask if they can keep it.
You have to work around the health and
safety elements there that, you know,
people will fall through the floor if you
have too many people in that corner.
But we made it work,
and we have to leave it as we found it.
Short of putting
the bird sh*t back in, so
Six was written by Sara Hess,
and Sara and I have worked together
before on House.
She actually wrote the first episode
of television that I directed.
It was about getting away
from where we had been.
And Pentos is, effectively, you know,
it's kind of It's Morocco, it's Ibiza.
It's somewhere far away
that's kind of nice
and you don't really need
to come back from.
It was a little just an island,
where we were doing all these scenes.
And it really felt, in that moment,
like we were far away from everything
and making this little domestic drama.
It has a really interesting feeling to it
that I think is different
from everything
that's come before it.
We are not minstrels or mummers who play
at the pleasure of an alien prince.
Pentos' story in episode six
is a bit of a short film.
I mean, so much was going on in the
Westeros side of the story
that we only had
so much time to devote to it.
So we were like, "What are the three
or four key beats that we have to hit?
And how do we dramatize them in a super
efficient way that feels
like you're moving
through a story quickly,
but not that just that you're ticking
boxes as you go along?"
-At this point, that felt natural.
-Yeah.
So I think you do it until, you know
Let's do the same thing.
Honestly, I mean, I can say this 'cause
I didn't write it, Sara wrote it,
but it's one of my favorite sequences
in the whole show.
You are more than this, Daemon.
The man I married is more than this.
Everyone knows that Harwin is, in fact,
the father of Rhaenyra's children.
No one will admit it because
the King has decreed that it isn't so.
And this is an opportunity
to push Harwin's buttons.
Harwin Strong is from the Riverlands.
That's where the Trident all intersects.
He's known to be
an incredible knight.
Strangely enough,
they call him "Breakbones"
because I think he has a reputation
for breaking a few bones.
Rowley choreographed
quite an elaborate fight between them.
And I came and had a look and said,
"No."
Most fights are over pretty quickly.
And if someone like Harwin,
who we've established as being
a one punch kinda guy,
if he lays into you
and you are un-protected, it's over.
Your interest in the princeling's
training is quite unusual, Commander.
Most men would only have that kind
of devotion towards a cousin,
or a brother.
Or a son.
Harwin gets baited and he takes the bait.
It was really stupid.
It's really an impulsive reaction
to the threat of his family.
Say it again!
Even though he's very adept at fighting
back, Cole does not fight back.
He takes the blows because he wants
to expose Harwin and Rhaenyra
for what they are.
Thought as much.
Ryan and Fabien fight really well.
They're skilled and they listen.
So that's the key to it, you know?
There's no arrogance there.
They're really easy to work
with and really easy to deal with.
I remember when I first got cast,
I said to my agent, I was like
"The stunt stuff, I want to do myself.
The sword stuff, let me do it.
Like, I'm happy to do it."
I regretted that two weeks in after,
like, a couple of hours boxing
training with Rowley.
Heaving over in the corner,
trying to catch my breath, or, like,
on take 50 of trying to swing a punch.
It's a lot harder than it looks.
But ultimately, it's like a dance,
it's like choreography.
And then doing that dance a number
of times once you get there on set.
We are generally working with actors
that have not had four of five seasons
of experience on previous seasons.
These guys are all kind of fresh out
of the box, especially the children.
So you're teaching them from scratch.
Ryan was helping me get into that moment.
After seeing it, it was really cool.
It was great working with the kids.
They're just happy to be there.
Is there anything greater?
You're getting paid money to go skip
school and learn to fight with swords.
Say something
Say something rememberable.
When children are involved,
it's always
It's a totally different situation
from when we're dealing with adults.
Every attempt in every situation
is done to make everything safe,
whether it's adults or children.
There's always that sort of pang
of uncontrol
when you're handing a rubber
weapon to a child.
We've done our fight scene.
And we rehearsed that
for months and months leading up to it.
And it went really well.
It was great.
We've been working with Rowley
and the whole stunt team.
And so we've been, like,
training and stuff, and learning.
And we've also done rehearsals,
so I'm pretty I'm pretty set, I think.
Hopefully,
I should get it right on the day.
All these scenes are, like, so cool.
As an actor, you know,
you don't get many shows
where you get to be with a dragon
or, like, fight with swords.
So it's gonna be awesome.
Those stunts are so well choreographed
by the stunt team and Rowley.
And they are amazing.
I mean, they showed us
multiple times that day, and before.
And just seeing them do it,
I was inspired to be as good as I can,
being in that scene.
Yeah, I mean, it's what you dream
about, really, as a kid.
I mean, I remember being the age
of, like, five to six and younger,
dreaming about being that sword
fighter and that hero or villain.
Fighting against my mates,
all my boys.
We're doing
We're doing something
-You broke
-You broke our shot!
Fabien, you ruined the shot!
What are you doing?
Larys found an opportunity
where it would be quite good
to maybe get rid of some
members of his family.
And he can't do it himself,
so he finds desperate people
who have nothing to lose.
So he goes into the dungeons where he
works, and he finds three prisoners.
And he gives them the option
that you can either stay here and die,
or you can come work for me
and do some dirty work.
I'm prepared to offer you mercy,
if you're prepared to pay a little price.
Originally written
as the whole of Harrenhal burns,
reduced to a set
which was not fire retardant.
So we couldn't
actually burn anything in it.
And yet, somehow, it worked.
So we were looking for some way in which
we could bring this all together.
What if they're just both on the other
side of a door,
and all we make is the door
and the back wall.
And we ended up with
the scene like that.
Harwin!
We're bringing up the fire effects,
so we see a little bit of fire and flame.
So we just used a couple of flame bars,
a bit of smoke machine.
I did some additional lighting
to push some of the warmer light
through the cracks of the doors,
so you Suggesting a bit of fire.
So we never actually see anyone burn.
And we just did some very simple flame
in the foreground of the camera,
the foreground of the shot.
Gavin was given at least six proper
wrought iron rods to bang the door with.
And he literally bent every single one,
which was quite impressive.
They gave me a rubber fire poker,
and I'm hitting this door.
And it just
It just looked like a wobbly fire poke.
So they gave me a metal one.
Because you're "in the moment,"
I was smashing the absolute s-h-i-t
out of this door.
And I bent this proper metal poker
in half, screaming at my son.
And I lost my voice.
Harwin!
-Cut!
-Cut.
I've broken the prop. I can't speak.
This is a nightmare.
So we, we did quite a few takes of that,
which, of course,
Miguel likes to keep pushing
you to their limit.
And he kinda did that day.
-Ryan?
-Yes?
The actor has disabled the door.
Very sad ending for both of them,
but it'll make Larys a wonderfully-hated
villain.
And me and Gav both joke about, you know,
if they need a Ghost of Harrenhal
or someone else in a real mask,
we can always come back for that later.
Originally, we weren't sure
which episode Harwin and Lyonel
were going to die in.
It was maybe going to be seven.
We weren't sure where to put it.
And we had two deaths by fire, which
felt like it was either going to be
too many deaths, or you just put them
together and make it a thematic,
side-by-side thing, which ended up
being the best way to go.
Well, Laena made it very clear to us,
I think, earlier in the story
that she doesn't want to go out
the prescribed way.
She's a dragon rider. She rides
the most fearsome dragon on Earth.
And she wants to die a dragon rider's
death. I don't think she means tonight.
But, in Game of Thrones, you never know
when the stranger's gonna come knocking.
I've reached the limit of my art.
I feel like the last scene with Laena,
when she decides to die by a dragon,
is the scene where we see that she takes
control of her life the first time.
That's kind of the scene, like, "This
is I am gonna decide how I will die."
I'm not gonna die by some blade
of some contentious surgeon.
I'm gonna die by my dragon
'cause I'm a dragon rider.
It's like her going out with a bang.
It's funny, you know,
'cause people always say,
"Oh, that must have been a really heavy
scene to direct."
I always think to myself, "Oh, this is
gonna be a really heavy scene to direct."
But generally speaking, one
of the things that lots of actors
are incredibly good at doing, is when
they're doing emotionally wrought.
Especially, kind of, distressing
or disturbing scenes,
they find a sense of humor and levity
that gets them through it.
And that's infectious, and it creates
a very good atmosphere on set.
And this was no exception.
When Miguel was talking to me about
the scene, he was like,
"So you imagine,
you know, you see Vhagar.
You can imagine that truck
standing there, that's like Vhagar."
And then he was like,
"No, that's Vhagar's face." She is huge.
Just to imagine, like, this enormous
dragon in front of you was kind of hard.
And then you have this guy
standing with a stick and a tennis ball.
And, like, that's Vhagar's eye.
And you're like, "Okay. Let's do this."
I'm happy with the scene,
but it was tough.
It was windy. It was cold.
And I was barefoot on all the stones.
And there was blood coming everywhere.
But you just do it.
In those kind of circumstances,
you just go, "Okay, this is so weird,
but I just have to."
Vhagar Dracarys!
Dracarys!
It's another one of those scenes where
it's a human and a dragon interacting.
And it's such an emotional scene.
I'm really hoping they're just
absolutely devastated.
Dracarys
We had a special effects rig up on top
of a bit of scaffolding
that would blast flames.
But obviously, we couldn't do
that with Nanna in there.
So, she would do her performance,
then we did all of her coverage.
And then we would get her out
of the way.
And then there was a representation
of her body shape
out of what looked like a knight.
It was all steel.
It had a wig and it had its own costume.
It was doused in fuel, and then the
special effects boys took great pleasure
in blasting it with a flamethrower.
Mark Action!
I was laughing when I saw that,
when they put her on fire.
I was like,
"That's me!" But, it looked
It's gonna be interesting to see
how they've managed to put
all the, you know,
different parts together.
We used a tool there called Cyclops,
which is Unreal-based software
that works on an iPad. So you
You know, the Apple iPad has its own
motion sensors in there,
and it uses that.
You can load the a scene in,
and that scene can be a dragon,
if you want it to be, and use it
as a framing guide that,
if you tilt up here, that's where
Vhagar's head will be.
So, we tried two things.
We tried one, actually putting
an iPhone-based version
of the app on the camera.
But most of the time,
I mean, actually, it was me.
I would, sort of, kneel down by the
camera with my iPad and discuss
with the cameraman, "Look, if you point
this way, you'll be seeing Vhagar here."
Angus has, has done a lot of prep work
on those kind of scenes.
You could say he comes knowing
the lenses that he wants to use,
and the camera angles, and the distances.
And we kind of work with him on that.
And the SFX guys have got the
flamethrowers and the torches.
It was kind of, a fun night
in a weird way.
We had a wonderful SFX technician.
He had made this incredible flamethrower
that he was very excited about.
And we almost couldn't get
the flamethrower out,
which was gonna be really sad if we,
sort of, had to report back to him,
"Sorry, didn't use flamethrower."
Instead, we did. It was
a very interesting experience,
and, surprisingly, came out quite well.
And three, two, one Action!
I remember, I was very nervous
coming and doing that rehearsal.
And I remember leaving, that
I was like, "This is gonna be fun."
That was a nice memory.
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