Note: The following contains mild spoilers for House of the Dragon season two episode five.
King Aegon II Targaryen has survived. But isn’t looking so great. Bed-bound and suffering, the insecure and impulsive despot has paid a high price for recklessly flying Sunfyre into battle at Rook’s Rest during last week’s episode of House of the Dragon. While actor Tom Glynn-Carney didn’t have a whole lot of dialogue in tonight’s fifth episode of season two (in fact, he had just one word, crying out to his mother), thankfully Glynn-Carney had plenty of thoughts while laying there under his prosthetic wounds. Below, the 29-year-old English actor takes some our burning (smoldering?) questions.
What was your reaction to reading this gruesome turn of events when you first learned about it?
I knew it was coming. When it was coming I wasn’t aware. But my immediate reaction was about how it came together by our amazing writers with this sort of amazing, theatrical, rousing, terrifying, unpredictable craftsmanship that I was very happy to be on the receiving end of.
First looking back on episode four, while it seemed pretty obvious to the viewer, I’m wondering what do you think was going through Aegon’s mind when he got on Sunfyre and went charging into the battle?
He’d been a bit backed into a corner by all the things that have accumulated over time with being king where his worst fears and insecurities were coming into plain sight and becoming true. He felt weak, and he was seen as weak, and kind of useless — with what Alicent (Olivia Cooke) had said to him (“Do nothing”) in his chamber, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And he was just resigned: “I don’t have any option, I’ve got to prove myself in some way.” But you know, being the way he is, and not being an actual warrior with that sort of fearless courage that other people have, he had to numb himself and so he got blind drunk and jumped on a dragon.
How do you think he felt about Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) betrayal? It seemed like it was clear? I did wonder if Aegon was truly surprised…
I think the moment of recognition was the fact that the fireball was coming at it. I don’t think he had time to think that he’s done this on purpose. If those thoughts are to come off, they will probably come later. As a viewer, I’m still unsure. I want people to make their own minds.
There’s an argument to be made that since the battle, as disastrous as it was, was eventually won, that he saved the day? Aegon the hero? Or no.
You’ve got to take them where you can get them. Yeah, he’s a hero.
What’s the prosthetic process like for you moving forward?
Long. Very detailed. I got to know my amazing hair and makeup team very well. I also got to know myself very well.
How do you mean?
The amount of time I was spending in that chair with those people in my own thoughts … But yeah, [the prosthetics] really influences and informs my performance. It sort of instructs me how to move now. How you breathe, how you speak changes. I have a have a piece inside my mouth that I asked for to sort of distort my speech. So all this is great because it makes me feel like we’ve made a shift. Aegon has to have changed after this. We’re going to find a difference in him and and allow that to continue and [impact] his decisions and have a new approach to life.
You’ve mentioned changing how he moves. In a previous interview you mentioned how Aegon used to move differently than you do. What was that difference?
He’s a little bit more hunched. He is a bit narrower. I feel it’s a bit weak and more weaselly.
Is it weirdly more fun to play him as now? Because this is going to be so much more theatrical, in a way.
Yeah! It feels like we’ve transitioned from Richard II to Richard III, if that makes any sense to you. Almost like a level up — though on paper, obviously, it’s a level down. I think what he loses physically he gains emotionally and mentally. I’m trying to see it like that.
There’s obviously a parallel there to how Viserys (Paddy Considine) was at the end, infirm and ghoulish. Did that inform your process at all?
I mean, it’s just fraught with danger, isn’t it? Having a crown on your head. Something nasty is going to happen to you at some point. Isn’t it being not having my crown on yet? There’s definitely a Viserys comparison, especially toward his final days and in bed. No quality of life whatsoever. It was only weeks, months before his dad was in that same position and in that same bed.
Let’s say his fate wasn’t literally written. What, ideally, would you want for your Aegon’s fate?
I want it to be, in an ideal world, for there to be an opportunity to prove himself and make decisions that he has made — not somebody else who thinks they know better. To carve out his own path as king. And then just see if he fucks it up as much as people think he might. I’d like to give him the space and the time to work it out. It’s a dangerous request because they could go horribly wrong. I think people underestimate him.
I found it interesting that not one person sat by his bedside or held his hand or tried to comfort him in any way — at least not in this episode. Seems pretty harsh.
It’s desperately, desperately sad. Aegon is a boy in a man’s body and all he’s ever wanted is to be shown love and made to feel seen or not judged. All these things that he’s done in the past that have given him a reputation, I believe he’s felt that any attention is good attention. Unfortunately, he’s made a name for himself now people kind of want to keep their distance and they see him as a poisoned chalice. At the end of the day, he’s a product of his history. He hasn’t had the emotional intelligence to be able to deal with that in a healthy way and move forward from it. Back then, therapy wasn’t really a thing, was it? He’s been left to his own devices.
And finally, there’s a moment earlier in the season when Aegon is hearing petitions from the commoners in the throne room for the first time. And Aegon’s instinct is to be like, “Oh, okay, let’s just give them what they want.” Even though that’s not practical. I thought that was interesting. People often compare Aegon to Joffrey, but that was probably the most opposite moment from Joffrey, whose instinct would have like, at best, to respond with: “Why are you asking me for this? Go away.” What part of Aegon was that?
Whether he was trying to do good things for the sake of doing good things or because he wants to be seen doing good things is rather different. He clearly wants to try to be different. I’d like to think that if he had a different upbringing that Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) had, then he might be different. She was always the one with her school picture in the frame on the fridge. And Aegon and Aemond were still in the drawer. We’re still working him out. I don’t think I’ll ever fully crack him. But I think that’s kind of the point. I don’t think he’s cracked himself, either.
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