House of the Dragon star based his Targaryen king character on his mother

House of the Dragon, like its mother show Game of Thrones, has a ton of characters. Based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set some 200 years before the original show and tells the story of a brutal civil war that tore Westeros apart.

The man who starts that war off is King Viserys I Targaryen, played by actor Paddy Considine. Although it’s not because he declares war or anything; King Viserys is actually a pretty laid back, why-can’t-we-all-get-along kind of guy. But after he dies, a succession fight breaks out between his eldest child Rhaenyra, whom he had named as his heir, and his son Aegon II, who is the chosen successor of his second wife Alicent Hightower. From there: blood.

So that’s a bit of a spoiler for you right there: King Viserys dies; it’ll probably be by the end of the first season, because the war is the meat of this show and it can’t happen until the king is dead. Until then, King Viserys is an important character, and Considine has a unique approach to playing him.

King Viserys I Targaryen “hides in his illness” on House of the Dragon

“The last thing you do when you play a king is go, ‘I’m the king,’” Considine told the Independent. “All you’ve got to do is be you, a human, and be compassionate. Lose the crown, lose the pomp, lose the bulls***, just play the person. And when I played Viserys Targaryen, I just played my mum, you know. That’s what I played – my mother.”

In particular, there was one thing about his mother that Considine found helpful in playing Viserys. “She was just an anchor for me,” the actor said. “I loved her very much. But she was a woman who became very, very sick. She had diabetes. She lost sight in both of her eyes. And she lost both of her legs. She was in a terrible, terrible state. But I think she hid inside her illness, and that made it worse for her.”

"It was a lot for us and everyone around to care for her, whereas she needed to care for herself, too. And that’s what this character does, eventually, you know… he becomes very sick and hides in his illness."

It’s true that Viserys didn’t take a particularly firm hand when it came to the growing enmity between his daughter and his second wife — he’s not a particularly confrontational guy — although I don’t recall from Fire & Blood whether he was battling a prolonged illness. Anyone remember?

Multiple House of the Dragon cast members are starting to talk about their characters. We will have a cornucopia of characters to enjoy when the show premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21:

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