Steve Toussaint was “racially abused” after getting cast in House of the Dragon

Like Game of Thrones before it, House of the Dragon has a huge cast. One of the ensemble is Corlys Velaryon, who at this point in Westerosi history — the new show is set some 200 years before the original — heads up the richest house in the Seven Kingdoms, a fortune he made from his many sea voyages.

Actor Steve Toussiant told Entertainment Weekly all about the formidable Corlys, known about town as the Sea Snake. “No one wants to f— with him,” Toussaint said. “Although he’s quite good at the politics of things — politics and plotting and intrigue are a huge part of this series as opposed to the other one — he’s actually more at home when he is on the battlefield or when he is at sea. It’s much simpler then. If you don’t do it right, you die. There’s no gray. But of course he has this huge ambition. This idea of legacy, it’s a big deal for him.”

That straight-shooting nature extends to his role as a father to his children Laenor and Laena, although that can backfire. Toussaint compared Corlys’ parenting skills to another father he played in the movie Small Axe. “I think he was a good father, but I think he needed some edges polished off a little bit,” Toussaint said. “But everything that he did, he thought was the right thing for his children. ‘You’re not going to be a policeman, you’ve got a f—ing degree. You’re going to lead us.’ And so I kind of think Corlys is in that mold of [fatherhood]: ‘I know you think you want this, but I know better and in 20 years time, you’ll thank me for it.’ But of course, it doesn’t work that way.”

Of course Steve Toussaint was abused online after getting cast in House of the Dragon

While it’s never said explicitly in the pages of Fire & Blood, author George R.R. Martin probably wrote Corlys Velaryon as a white character. Steve Toussaint is a Black actor, and his casting attracted some attention. And because this is the internet, by “attention,” I do mean racist hate from keyboard warriors who think faithfully translating the (textually ambiguous) race of a character from page to screen is more important than people of color getting better represented in films and TV in light of a long history of exclusion.

What I’m saying is that some a**holes didn’t like that Corlys Velaryon was Black and they wanted this actor they’d never met to know it. “I didn’t realize [the casting] was a big deal until I was racially abused on social media,” Toussaint told The Hollywood Reporter. “Yeah, that shit happened. I was just like, ‘Oh wow,’ and then I thought: ‘OK, so this means a lot to some people, but I can’t allow that to bother me.’”

"I loved Game of Thrones, but my only caveat was, ‘Where’s everybody else in this world?’ Because it’s a diverse world Martin has created if you look [beyond Westeros], and I think this show comes closer to that."

As it ends up, diversifying things both behind and in front of the camera was a concern for producers. “We knew from the outset that we wanted to change that conversation,” said showrunner Ryan Condal. “The world changed a lot between 2011 and 2021 and [so did] what audiences expect to see on camera. The conversations [co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik] and I had were: How do we create a diverse cast for House of the Dragon but still do it in a way that feels organic to the world and doesn’t feel like pandering or tokenism — and also have them not be pirates, slaves and mercenaries like you tend to see in high fantasies?”

I think choosing to make Corlys Velaryon a Black man was a smart choice. The Velaryons hail from Old Valyria, which was a hugely cosmopolitan empire on Essos, a continent that has a little more civilizational variety than Westeros. Plus, Corlys has a lot of relatives who also play roles in the story, which gives the show an opportunity to bring in even more Black actors.

Steve Toussaint auditioned for Game of Thrones several times

Time will tell how long Toussaint will get to play Corlys, but at least he’s finally part of the Game of Thrones universe. That was despite him trying out for various roles over the years, most of which he doesn’t remember. There is an exception, though:

"I ended up working with a girl called Jessica Henwick. I did a job with her. Now, in her section of the story [in Game of Thrones], there’s her and there’s her sisters with the whips and stuff. Then there’s her mother, who’s [played by] Indira Varma. And then there’s her uncle. Her uncle has a bodyguard. That was one of the roles I auditioned for."

What does it say about me that I immediately know that he auditioned for the role of Areo Hotah, which ended up going to DeObia Oparei?

“I’m glad I got this rather than that,” Toussaint admits. Considering that HBO is developing a potential spinoff about Corlys Velaryon as a younger man, I’d agree this was definitely the better career move. House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.

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