I was completely not into any of that fantasy stuff I thought it was a bit lame. The last time I had an experience like that was with the first Lord of the Rings film. But we did watch it all throughout lockdown, so I had seen enough to be able to call my wife and say, “I’ve just been offered the role of the king in the new Game of Thrones prequel,” and have it be exciting enough to impress her. I probably played up to Miguel that I’d seen more than I had. They said, “Are you a fan of Game of Thrones?” And I said, “Well, it’s funny you should ask that.” Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen HBOĬONSIDINE: Not quite. It wasn’t until lockdown that I gave it another shot, and it then became this weird synchronicity, because there I was getting massively into the show when the call came for House of the Dragon. And I didn’t get very far with it if I’m being completely honest. So, I’d tried to watch it years ago, but I’m a bit terrible with being massively late to things. After, of course, what happens in the first season with Sean Bean’s character. For me, then watching the show, it wasn’t really until the Red Wedding that there was a massive turning point. I think it’s a show that takes a little time to get into.

My agent told me that HBO were making this show about dragons and different families and kingdoms and I was like, “Ah…” It wasn’t for a specific part he said, “Just read it and see what clicks.” But I couldn’t get my head around it. We’re just right back there.ĭEADLINE: What’s your history with Thrones?ĬONSIDINE: It’s a funny one, because I got sent the script for Game of Thrones very early on. We haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel and there are no gimmicks and tricks. It’s very much a part of the history of Westeros, and within the world of Game of Thrones. So we’re lucky to be able to pick up where Game of Thrones left off, and get all of that production value from the get-go. That was when I first thought the television landscape had changed, that this was cinema on a smaller screen. By the time Miguel was doing “Battle of the Bastards”, it was mind-blowing to me, the scale. It started as a smallish, but ambitious show. I think we’re lucky in the fact that Game of Thrones has all gone before us. Did it feel like the biggest set you’d ever stepped onto? He explains his attraction to the show, his hopes for its future, and the turning point in his career that made him fall in love-perhaps for the first time-with his chosen profession.ĭEADLINE: Watching the first episode of House of the Dragon, there’s a sense of scale and grandeur that Game of Thrones took seasons of success to build to. With the mildest of spoilers for only the first episode of the new show, Paddy Considine reveals that Viserys has all the qualities that make a good king not that any of them matter to those trying to usurp his throne. And in Viserys, Considine says, he found the King Lear of Westeros, a part too intriguing not to explore. He was sought out for the part by director and co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, who happened to catch the actor in the middle of his own burgeoning love affair with Game of Thrones. He was nominated for Olivier and Tony awards for his role in Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, directed by Sam Mendes, which played on Broadway and in London’s West End.īut if House of the Dragon is Considine’s highest profile role to date, it has been chosen with the same due care he has applied every choice he has made. It is perhaps a surprising choice for Considine, best known for an accomplished career in British independent cinema, whose storied collaboration with director Shane Meadows yielded several celebrated features including Dead Man’s Shoes, and whose own accomplishments as a director, with the films Tyrannosaur and Journeyman, have been critically acclaimed. Condal’s prequel doubles down on both, as Viserys weathers various challengers to his dominion, including his brother Daemon and his cousin Rhaenys. Still, Game of Thrones assured us early on that nothing lasts forever, and yet it managed eight seasons of intrigue and dragons. Bill Maher And Guests Swipe Right On The Growing Pains Of Younger Men In 'Real Time' Summit

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