House of The Dragon has gifted fans with all different types of fun tidbits and behind-the-scenes anecdotes, but it also tortured fans in other ways.
One of the most memorable (for better or worse) moments was a scene in which Larys Strong uses his foot fetish in an information exchange. Matthew Needham, who plays Larys, recently sat down for a roundtable interview where he told Consequence that Larys’ trauma was a lot more complex than viewers got to see.
He explained (via Decider), “I mean, I always thought part of the reason that Larys is the way Larys is is because he’s come from a very traumatic background.” Needham also revealed that he has cut scenes which helped provide a better backstory for Larys.
“There was [a deleted scene], it didn’t make the show sadly, but the first time you meet him, he is being harassed and abused by people because of his disability. And you get a sense that that’s how he grew up. Every day for him was something traumatic like that,” Needham said. “I think one of his things is to sort of re-inflict that harm on the world, the world outside of himself.” Hence his need to overpower Alicent.
This brings us to the infamous foot fetish scene, which originally had more context. “That’s another one where sort of, you know, there was stuff that didn’t make the cut unfortunately,” Needham said. “When we discussed it, it was about — because he can’t touch her, but it’s a way of making her feel as ashamed for that part of her body as he does for his.”
He added, “That does not translate completely, but that’s okay.” He explained that the scenes like that make a bit more sense when the character’s background was explored more. “Obviously if you cut like a line here and a line there and everything sort of ends up just like, you know, ‘It’s Tuesday!’” Needham said. “But it’s all good.”
Needham also says he does not read what the fans are saying online. “I can’t do the online thing. Just I can’t. And also I’m just crap at it, so I don’t, but people come up and tell me a lot about a lot of wild things,” he said. It’s probably for the best that he stays away from what the people are saying.
House of the Dragon season two premieres June 16th on HBO.
