What are you most looking forward to in House of the Dragon‘s second season? That’s a loaded question, but in addition to the obvious (several more dragons to add to the list) I’m very much ready to see the Daemon-Aemond dynamic pick back up again with higher stakes. Those George R.R. Martin fans who have read Fire and Blood know how their rivalry will likely progress, and both Matt Smith (Daemon) and Ewan Mitchell (Aemond the anagram-nephew) know how to work that cattiness to a delicious degree. That soap operatic tone is everything with this Game of Thrones prequel series, but did you know that one of these actors has never watched the original show?
That would be Ewan, who revealed this to ComicBook. He also made a point of continuing that non-watching streak ahead of filming the show:
“I haven’t seen the original Game of Thrones,” Mitchell admitted when asked who he thinks Aemond would have an interesting dialogue with from the original show. “I have a confession to make. I’ve never seen it and I didn’t want to watch it going into this role. I didn’t want it to inform my decisions in any way, shape, or form, you know, whether it be consciously or subconsciously. I wanted to bring something fresh. Aemond is one of a kind, you know.”
So, where did the actor draw inspiration from while painting his anti-hero (as portrayed in the show vs. the book)? Mitchell went straight-up villain for “some inspiration” at least:
“I see Michael Myers from Halloween … Just through his physicality, you know, no matter how slow he walks, he always catches up with Jamie Lee Curtis. You know, he doesn’t have to say much. He’s just super scary. The way he inhabits space was something that I used with Aemond for sure.”
Surprisingly, that works and is especially effective during Aemond’s quiet moments, where Ewan really does take up much more space than in the physical sense. Soon, we will surely see much more of that when HBO’s House of the Dragon returns on June 16.
(Via Comic Book)
