'House of the Dragon' cast on Season 3's colossal Battle of the Gullet

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These are turbulent times. I would love to talk about the Battle of the Gullet

House of Dragon has been foreshadowing it with, you know, the blockade, the blockade. But what was the most challenging thing about this massive maritime battle

For me, definitely continuing the, like, holding the emotional severity of everything

while trying to keep your head above water, really. In all senses of the word

Literally, it was, you know, the important thing about this, the whole battle anyway, is just the sheer sort of violence of it

And I think that it's mainly seen, obviously, through the actual physical nature of it, but also just through the people participating in it

And I think that was something that was really important to tell this story of the gullet

was just, like, how terrifying and violent it was. Yeah. Yeah, I would agree

I think you can choreograph the fight scenes, which is what we did. You can do that, but ultimately without emotional content in that fight

I think one of the rules of fight choreography is that when you make every blow, you want it to be vast

Your character wants it to be the last blow. That's the winning blow. you don't begin a fight and think this will last about five minutes no you'd like it to end with

one thrust and so keeping that emotional content of every blow that you make so that hopefully you

the viewer watching it go oh my god yeah he really wants to do this and it hasn't happened then oh my god and they're getting tired and so forth so constantly having to say okay where are we in the

battle what has happened what have i just seen yeah and so forth so that you so that when you're

watching it it flows as a one continual story being separate is such a challenge because you

unlike the boys who are at sea who they get you know they shoot those huge sequences and they've

done like stunt rehearsals for weeks and weeks and it becomes like a massive ensemble piece we are

just alone we're like shooting in separate days and I think it's sometimes really hard to imagine

at least your POV of what you're seeing and sort of like get the scale right is that that's fair to

say but we had really amazing Lonnie who really helped yeah yeah yeah they do they help us as much as they can with that but you right It is sort of the core thing It weird

Yeah, which also makes us very thankful and lucky for our relationship in real life

because it's not hard to picture Bethany. So I'm like, great, that's fine. Same with Harry

Same with Harry. Phoebe, during the battle, we're sort of like, yay, Raina's a dragon rider, yay, first Rekarus

and then, oh, no, she doesn't have control. how did you approach this pivot from complete high to how do what do i do i guess hard relate

you know where i go into things thinking i've got this i'm just you know so it wasn't like an

unfamiliar feeling um but yeah i guess that the realization of of i have no control over this

there's there's nothing i can do i think we can all relate to that in in some way it's even like

I have a dog, right, who actually topically looks a bit like Sheepstealer. And if she starts to like run in front of a car, I'm like, I can't I can't do anything

You're off. You're gone. And I think that that instinct to be like, right, I'm just here for the ride

But try. Yeah, I mean, and also I think it's very relatable because of three words

That's my sister. Like I dropped everything I was holding. Oh, the worst. The actual worst. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brutal. It was a horrible day

It's a horrible day. Horrible. So Lonnie and I, we talked about what we called the Captain Ahab moment

where she's up on the rails, she hits Steve and gets him away, and she lunges towards him with the axe

There's no way that move is going to succeed. And if this doesn't hit his head and kill him

she's dead and she knows it because she's overextended. And in that moment, she knows that she's risking it all

And so we have that Captain Ahab moment. It's that from hell's heart, I stab at thee

For hate's sake, I spit my last breath. and she really goes for it

So it's about choosing those moments where you really bring everything of the character

into that one move and that's the beautiful challenge about action. Did you have any other lines that you were like this is the greatest moment Call me Low low heart dragon slayer love that but also the moment where they set the grapnel up there no line in the script

for this but i i just look at steve and like i and this wasn't written i just decided to play this

i look at steve and in my head you could see me thinking check this shit out playboy

because he doesn't know what the big dragon killing gun is and i'm just like

Like, bang! I love that, man. I love that they kept it in

Just leave me like, eh, eh, eh. Bam! Harry, the end of episode one

is a massive moment for your character, obviously, and I think audiences will be very shocked

by what happens to Jace and Vermack Max in this moment. How did you emotionally prepare for it

Because it's a huge deal. I mean, I had loads of meetings with Lonnie

the director of the episode, and Ryan, and just talking about how I can portray feelings

while being up in the air and having all this stuff going on around me

So, yeah, it wasn't really... I don't know, it only just really helped me get into character

and even we would make up scenarios that would happen with Jace

that didn't happen in the show, you know, which really helped me get into character

But not much preparation, really. I had a lot of wetsuit fit in, so I suppose that was a lot of preparation

and horse riding lessons to get my posture right on the buck

Bucking bronco. Yeah. Yeah, and it was really fun. It was really fun this time around

because I finally got to get out of the offices. We get to see Corlys in full combat mode

but we also get to see his amazing evasive manoeuvring skills with the Dragonstone Pass

What was it like to film this? Because essentially I want to play that video game. and what was it like to bring this side of Corliss to the show

It was a joy because in a way I've been kind of waiting

to show that side of him because of course you've been hearing and other than the battle of the Stepstones in season one

we've not really seen him in action. Most of season two is like my wife dead and my son doesn love me So it was nice to show oh yes that right that what he good at

This is why he runs away to sea whenever there's a problem, because he's good at it and he feels comfortable there

So doing those scenes, putting yourself in that position where you're the guy, was joyous

And I was saying to Abu that Lonnie, we'd have this thing

I used to say to Lonnie, our director, you know, will this make me sexy

Because that's all I care about. I don't care about the story. It's going to be sexy. And it got to a point where..

It was so funny. It was literally, literally every now and then. As long as I'm sexy

Yeah. I'm out of emotional content. Don't worry, don't worry. Do I look good? Okay, great. It got to a point where I'd be walking onto set

and Lonnie would go, you're going to be sexy. You're never going to forget that either

That's going to be every job now. Yeah. It was brilliant. Brilliant

Ababaka, Alan has a real beautiful... We see him in combat too

but we hear him say father in the middle of this battle. What was that like for your character to reach that moment

I don't think he expected to say it himself. I think it comes from a place of surprise

because for a long time he was all about duty, he was all about seeing this man, not as his father

because he's never been a father to him, but as a man who he can respectfully distance himself from

you know, but like with respect. But I think that after the scene within Corliss's cabin

I think Alan is still trying to process all of that and it culminates with him seeing something horrible happen

and just almost like the instinctually calling out for his father like a child

And I think that's what really, um... really, for Alan, was... Again, it was a surprise for him

I don't think he expected it. It wasn't just the dragon water. No, it wasn't just the dragon water, no

I mean, that probably had an effect. And the sea water. Yeah, a little bit

But, you know, let's talk about emotions here, you know? Yeah