‘House of the Dragon’ Director on That Surprise Kiss and Whether Alys Is a Ghost
[This story contains spoilers from the sixth episode of House of the Dragon season two, “Smallfolk.”]
An unexpected romance. A new dragon rider. A roasted Darklyn. A riot in the streets. These were some of the key moments from the latest episode of HBO’s fantasy drama House of the Dragon, which has marched towards its final two episodes of the year.
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Below, newcomer to the franchise and Emmy-winning Succession veteran Andrij Parekh looks back on directing the episode and answers some burning questions — including whether that seemingly all-knowing Harrenhal healer Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) is a ghost — and reveals a Succession-style touch he added to one particular scene.
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You directed some great episodes of Succession — which, back in the day, was described as being “like Game of Thrones, but helicopters instead of dragons” — and now you’re actually on the dragon show. I’m sure its wildly different in many ways but, what has it been like going from that acclaimed HBO drama to this one?
The circumstances are different, but it’s still about family. That’s what attracted me to doing House of the Dragon. It’s really about family and family conflicts and, in many ways, was an extension of Succession.
How was the experience like what you expected and what was different than you expected?
It’s massive scale. I was a little bit taken aback by walking onto those sets. Then you remind yourself that those sets were built by [production designer] Jim Clay who did just masterful work. It was an honor and pleasure in that sense, because if felt like there was no end to the set.
I’ve been on that continuous, multi-story Red Keep set and it’s so impressive. It feels like a space where you could just move in and live there.
Absolutely. They feel completely lived-in and real. What I love about shooting in New York is walking onto location and it feels like you’re shooting in a real location, and this [felt similar]. It oftentimes felt like relocation. And you’d just go to lunch and see hundreds of people eating; it was like there was an army behind the army.
So when you first got the script, what excited you about this episode?
I think what I loved was that this episode is about Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) almost being at their lowest points in their lives. Alicent has been missing one son; she’s being kicked off the Council. Rhaenyra’s husband has left her, she’s feeling completely isolated and alone; she has all these men calculating [moves] without necessarily with her input. They’re both feeling incredibly isolated as characters and part of the challenge with this episode, for me, was to keep the tension alive of what was happening in King’s Landing and what was happening in the world of Westeros, which are two worlds about to go to war. There’s a feeling of desperation and imminent doom that’s different in both camps. We’ve seen the result of one battle. You know what that war is going to be like.
There’s another scene with Daemon (Matt Smith) and Alys (Gayle Rankin) this week. Are we supposed to be assuming she’s a real person and not a ghost? Not asking for a spoiler. But just curious what I’m supposed to be assuming as a viewer — because I’ve been watching this thinking she’s not really there.
I think a healthy amount of doubt makes that much more interesting. She’s able to enter Daemon’s mind and read his mind. She’s definitely otherworldly. I’ll leave it at that.
Which scene were you most proud of?
The scenes that were challenging for me, for various reasons, were the burning of Darklyn (Anthony Flanagan) when he attempted to ride Seasmoke. And Seasmoke finding his rider. And the kiss between Rhaenyra and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) — that was very challenging to make that feel earned and real.
That potential romance was sort of hiding in plain sight, and it was a moment that felt both unexpected yet also made sense.
I think it’s a surprise. But I also don’t want it to feel like it’s an outlier and for it to fit into the emotional truth, which is linear, which is that Rhaenyra has been abandoned by her husband. And that kiss hopefully feels like it’s earned, and real and emotionalized.
When Darklyn tries to ride Seasmoke, you know this isn’t going to go well. How was staging that moment?
A lot of that scene is spent on Rhaenyra. I feel like it’s about her projection of possibility, as ludicrous as it seems. She’s going to try to will this thing to happen. And hopefully, the audience feels like it’s about to happen, and then suddenly it doesn’t happen, in a quick and unexpected way. We had a real set that Jim built and that walkway is like 15 feet off the ground. You can definitely fall off and it feels quite dangerous, so when you’re there it feels real, even though its against a blue screen.
Was there any subtle detail from the episode that a casual fan might miss?
I loved Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) giving the ball back to Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) by pushing it into his wound and torturing him with it. He basically hands the power back to him, but in a way that so you know who really has the power.
House of the Dragon, like Succession, tends to have a lot of meeting scenes — I particularly liked your dramatic intro shot of Aemond leaning across the table at the Small Council meeting. What’s the secret to keep such scenes active and engaging when you have a bunch of characters around a table?
I just think it’s just about moving the drama forward. And I feel like Aemond is so powerful in that scene. You feel he’s very different presence than Aegon at that Small Council, in a radically different way. He’s immediately getting down to business and not asking anyone what they really think, he’s telling them what they need to do. So that level of command I found inspiring.
We also covered it in kind of a Succession way — a moving camera around the table. That was something I loved to do as a DP in Succession, but also as a director. I think it keeps it alive for the actors. It’s always wonderful when the actors don’t know where the cameras is. All of them are forced to act as an ensemble and then you’re basically creating filmed theater, and that’s when it feels really alive to me — when they don’t know where the camera is looking, exactly. It adds a level of uncertainty and electricity that I think helps in terms of performance.
House of the Dragon releases new episodes Sunday at 9 p.m. on Max. Follow along with THR‘s season two show coverage and interviews.
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