‘House of the Dragon’ Star Ewan Mitchell on ‘Terminator’ Aemond, Torturing Aegon and Idolizing Matt Smith: ‘He’s Daemon’s Biggest Stan’
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for HBO’s “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 6, titled “Smallfolk,” now streaming on Max.
King’s Landing is far from the City of Brotherly Love.
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The rule of Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) as prince regent has begun, and things aren’t looking great for Westeros or its broken king, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney). Aemond takes the lead at the Greens’ small council, and immediately makes some big moves by dismissing his mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) as the Dowager Queen. After being scolded by Alicent for being overly bold, he also calls upon his grandfather Otto Hightower to return as the hand to the king.
In one of the most dramatic scenes of the episode, Aemond and Aegon have their first meeting after Aemond severely burned his brother during the Battle of Rook’s Rest. Lying powerless in bed and unable to talk, Aegon is helpless as his younger brother presses his hand painfully into his damaged chest. Aemond admonishes Aegon for foolishly joining the battle, and asks how much he remembers from Rook’s Rest, to which Aegon replies “nothing.”
Outside the Red Keep, the citizens of King’s Landing are growing ever more restless. Rhaenrya Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) plotted from Dragonstone to rations of food in boats, all sporting her black flag, to the hungry people. The secret plan worked to gain support in King’s Landing’s slums and incite a riot. The Kingsguard escort Alicent and her daughter Queen Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) from the castle, and protect them from the violent rioters, but Alicent gets a nasty cut. Also during the commotion, spymaster Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) strikes up an alliance with Aegon, and sneaks him away from the Red Keep.
Fans can read about what happened with Rhaenyra’s Black faction and her steamy kiss with Mysaria in Variety’s interview with D’Arcy and Mizuno. Here, Mitchell talks about Aemond’s rise to power, his crumbling relationship with Aegon — and how he’s the biggest “stan” for Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen.
After the Battle of Rook’s Rest, where is Aemond and Aegon’s sibling relationship?
It’s never been great between those two. Aemond has always seen Aegon as someone inferior who lacks the dedication and persistence to be king, whereas Aemond has always seen himself as — although he is the spare — that he should have been treated as the first son. Aegon himself even says, in Episode 9 of Season 1, he has no wish to rule. You get the idea that he has no political ambition whatsoever. You can see how that might look to members of the small council, because that’s someone you might be able to control, and have some sway on their direction. You couple that with Aemond, who you could argue has a political agenda and does have his own ambition, and you can see how that might not be as lucrative to the small council because that might be a wildcard — someone you might not be able to control as much.
I love that scene when they vote Aemond into power, and he goes from one end of the table to the other because there is this massive switch. Aemond has been serving the war from this side of the table. He goes to the other side, and he sees all of these other characters in a new perspective. How can they serve Aemond now? It’s somewhat similar to the relationship with Aegon. How can he serve me now that he’s in his bed, and he’s terribly crippled from what Aemond did to him in the skies above Rook’s Rest?
It raises the question of how much of a hindrance he might serve to me in the state that he’s in, and now with Aemond’s newfound power, will he get in the way? Is he still on my side? I love all the shakeups in Episode 6.
What political agenda and ambition does Aemond have now that he’s on the Iron Throne?
He doesn’t even want to sit on the throne. Aemond recognizes that he who sits the Iron Throne ultimately becomes the most wanted man in the realm. Aemond has a pretty large target on his back already. A part of Aemond knows that anyone who sits on the Iron Throne accidentally cuts themselves. Heavy lies the head that wears the crown. Aemond might be happiest operating as prince regent.
Or maybe he does want the throne! Maybe he does want absolute power. That’s what I love about Aemond, that ambiguity. You don’t know what master he serves, what he’s ultimately striving for. Whatever it is, it’s not going to be pretty.
Aemond and Aegon finally talk in this episode after the Rook’s Rest. Aemond asks his brother how much he remembers from the battle and Aegon says “nothing.” But it seems like Aemond is coercing him into silence, and he gives him the little ball from the small council seemingly as a bribe or a threat. How should we interpret that scene?
You’ll have to wait and see. I love that scene, because it’s almost like Stephen King’s “Misery.” It’s like this spider leering over his prey in the web. You’re right there in the palm of my hand. That’s certainly a new dynamic for Aemond, as well as his brother, who’s now physically inferior than him. I can’t wait to see where it goes. If I give all the answers, people will stop asking the questions. That’s a really cool way of looking at it. It’s the king’s marker. Maybe Aemond is giving it back to his brother, maybe he’s trying to reassure him that everything’s gonna be okay — “You’ll be king after you recover” — maybe lure him into that false sense of security.
Will Aemond give up the throne once Aegon recovers?
Aemond has a multitude of motivations. One of them is that he wants to be the war hero, and to be seen as this nigh-unkillable force, very similar to the Rogue Prince, the younger Daemon Targaryen. Especially because Aemond wields the largest singular power in Vhagar, with that power comes a great responsibility. He has to be seen as someone who can capably control that power. It ultimately means that in his mind has to be the person who wins the war for the Greens. He’s prepared to do the necessary evil. That’s the thing with Aemond, he doesn’t necessarily consider other people’s perspectives in the situation. He’s got his own singular vision. He sees the world through a very black and white filter. You’re either with him or you’re against him, and if you get in his way, he will cut you down.
Aemond and Daemon have so many parallels, beyond their names sounding almost identical. They’re both second sons with grander political ambitions who hate each other. Where do you see their relationship going when they inevitably meet back up?
I think they’d be really good friends in reality. Aemond wants to be his uncle, but he also wants to be better than him. To achieve that, he has to do more than what he did, which is a tremendous feat in itself. So much of Aemond’s costume lends to the idea that he very much idolizes Daemon. He’s Daemon’s biggest stan. From the Targaryen blacks to the long hair, it’s so reminiscent of a young Rogue Prince. It’s a homage to his idol. I don’t want to spoil anything, but if those guys end up meeting in a room somewhere, every household object would become a dangerous weapon.
Have you and Matt Smith spoken about how similar your characters are?
One of the first decisions I made on my first shoot day was this idea that I would avoid Matt Smith’s eye contact, and only ever see Daemon. I was a big fan of “Doctor Who” growing up, and Matt Smith was such an electricity and a useful vibrancy that was a lot more accessible for a young kid. I dreamt of going on adventures with him, very similar to how Aemond would probably dream about going on adventures with his idol. So I thought there was something interesting in keeping Matt Smith on the podium, keeping Daemon Targaryen on that platform, so long as he was OK with it and Ryan Condal, our showrunner, was OK with it. That was definitely the direction that I wanted to go. I wanted to save that eye contact for a very particular moment in Season 1, where these characters finally come face to face at the banquet table and save the eye contact for that moment. It was just pure electricity in the room, to only ever see Daemon and to not see Matt. If you can keep those same relationships off of set that your characters have on set, it can pay off in tremendous dividends.
What would Aemond be like if he hadn’t lost his eye when he was a child?
From losing his eye, he’s in a very different place physically and psychologically between Episodes 7 and 8 of Season 1. He’s developed himself into a weapon. I think about a line from M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split” in that “the broken are the more evolved.” Because he had his eye taken out, and was harmed and neglected for years as a child, he thought, “I’m never going to get hurt like that ever again. I’m going to train with Criston Cole relentlessly and temper myself into a lethal weapon.” If he didn’t lose his eye, maybe he’d be a maester. I think he’d be a maester in the Grand Sept in Oldtown.
But he would still have Vhagar. You could argue that if he didn’t claim Vhagar, he wouldn’t have lost his eye, maybe. That’s one of the really cool things about the show, tracing back to when the actual Dance of the Dragons started. You could say it was when Aemond killed Lucerys in the skies above Storm’s End, or when Lucerys took Aemond’s eye — or when Lucerys and Aegon brought the Pink Dread pig out, and bullied him relentlessly. It’s a very gray area, and that’s what I find really compelling.
When I spoke with director Geeta Patel, she said that Aemond has some “mommy issues” and that’s why he has a close relationship with Vhagar, the oldest female dragon, and the madam at the brothel. Do you agree with that?
I don’t know if he has mother issues. He just wanted to be loved by his mom a little bit more; he never really had that. He’s the spare son, and felt like he should have been treated as the first. He felt like he had to find surrogates in other areas, like this dragon. He found it in the madam, but are they enough? Kids need that unconditional love to develop a balanced view of themselves. If a child isn’t embraced by the village, they’ll burn it down to feel its warmth. Aemond’s going to seek validation through other means, and through war.
Ultimately, one of the other driving factors Aemond is he wants his mom, that thing he’s always craved. He wants her affection. I don’t think there was anything more Aemond wanted at the end of Episode 10 of Season 1 than to just be held by his mom, and he wanted to say: “I’m sorry. I messed up. I made a mistake. I let my emotions get the better of me.”
He possesses this code that stops him from doing that. He must be seen as this nigh-unkillable, Terminator-like figure who doesn’t feel anything because love is weakness, and “weak” isn’t in Aemond’s vocabulary.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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