With all that work that went into getting into the headspace of your characters, how well do you think you guys personally relate to your characters?

OC: Hopefully not well at all. I mean I can understand her and I have endless empathy. She is a product of the patriarchy, she is intent on tradition and she feels completely bound by that. But I feel like an incredibly modern woman whereas even at that time, she is not.

ED: I think I’m really interested in some of the questions about Rhaenyra’s existence. Like from a very young age, she’s trying to kind of self-actualise and is trying to find a way of living in a really restrictive space. I feel like I have real empathy for that.

Were you a Game of Thrones fan before you were cast? Have you read the books?

ED: We hadn’t seen it until we got involved with House of the Dragon. 

OC: And that’s a good thing as well because I don’t think we would have got the role because we would have been such intense fans. We would have blown it. 

ED: There was so much pressure and the audition process was quite long. I wouldn’t have been able to hold it together if I had the love for the show that I do now.

So the dragons are obviously tennis balls perched on top of a stick. How did you guys relate to that and what was it like working in this way?

OC: Well I’ve had to act to imaginary things a lot when I was in Ready Player One so I was pretty good at pretending that there were dragons around.

But you know what was really good was that they would be blowing so much wind at you that you feel like there is something ominous there because it is not a comfortable experience. And then I was insanely jealous that some of the actors got to fly in the air at full speed.

Okay, this one is for Emma. You have worked on many different films and television projects. How has that experience worked to prepare you for your role in House of the Dragon?

ED: Well without all my past projects I definitely wouldn’t be sitting here. I would be even more of a nobody.

OC: Not true.

ED: I guess what has been really surprising to me about this process was how, you know, being on a show of this size, how much time that affords you. So like maybe Olivia and I are doing two pages of dialogue, we’ve probably got the whole day. And at the very beginning of the process, I didn’t understand that.

The reality was that you can turn up and you have time to prepare. You’re not coming to work to show your homework. You’re coming to discover your role with your scene partner. And that has been the most magical part for me as an actor. I really got to learn that this was what being an actor was all about because I hadn’t seen it in my other projects except maybe in theatre.

What about you Olivia? 

OC: Similarly to Emma, there has been a lot of stamina that has been required doing this job. There are many characters and the sets are huge. Sometimes a scene is 10 pages long and it involves a stunt and dragons and all these things. So occasionally it will take about two weeks to shoot just one scene and so I think it was really just knowing that it is going to be a marathon that was the biggest challenge in this job.

Like Emma, I have shown up expecting to do it all in one day but no, they are going to expect to see your right side on Monday and maybe you have to cry in the scene so you cry and cry and then you do your left side the Monday after and cry all over again and it needs to be the exact same reaction. So you really need to dig deep every single day.

You both obviously work together on many scenes. What was it like acting alongside each other? How did you form the chemistry?

OC: We didn’t have to work on our chemistry. it was quite immediate. You know with any relationship it takes a bit of work but this was one of the easiest. 

ED: It took like a minute and a half. But I remember really early on, we shot a huge scene in the studio and it was the first day and I wasn’t even on camera. I was just there to give lines to Olivia and I felt so privileged. There are not many people who really get it and want to do the work and I just learned so much.

OC: Same. I think we’ve been extremely lucky with this cast. 

That’s so sweet. So what was your favourite moment on set or while you were filming?

OC: Oh the last day was really lovely because we were all together. But honestly, I think my favourite memory was being on the cliff in Cornwall. It felt otherworldly. We were all in our costumes and literally rock climbing to get up for the scene. It felt so special.

What were the funniest moments while you were filming?

ED: I think one of the funniest moments for me was a scene were doing at the end of the day. We were shooting all day and it was the last shot and it was supposed to rain. So we were all ready but the rain machine was stuck at a different part of the set. So we were just watching the clock until they finally got it over. When it was there, there was no time to test it because we had already run over so we get into the scene and they’re like okay we have one take.

Right before we start, someone comes over and tells me, no matter what happens, just pretend this is a normal amount of rain.

But wow. It was not like raindrops. It was like a body of water. I couldn’t even open my eyes and I couldn’t breathe. It was like being waterboarded.

But I was there still trying to act and be professional in this waterfall. So turns out it was a two-minute clip and the whole time the crew were just cry laughing because the footage had been deemed unusable almost from the get-go. Anyway, that’s a scene you won’t see in House of the Dragon.

NOW READ

Exclusive: Doctor Strange’s Sheila Atim on Winning the 2022 Trophée Chopard

7 Exciting New Shows to Stream on Disney+ and Netflix in August 2022

Is Blackpink’s Jennie Starring in a New TV Series With The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp?