Jefferson Hall talks bringing the Lannister twins to life on House of the Dragon

The latest episode of House of the Dragon was its most action-packed yet, featuring an epic battle in the Stepstones and a royal hunt filled with politicking, family drama, boar attacks, and remorseful deer-murder. “Second of His Name” also introduced us to a few new characters, like Corlys Velaryon’s brother Vaemond Velaryon (Wil Johnson), Lyonel Strong’s children Larys “Clubfoot” (Matthew Needham) and Harwin “Breakbones” Strong (Ryan Corr), and the titular baby-of-the-hour Aegon II Targaryen.

But of all the new characters from Episode 3, none made as much of an impression as Jason and Tyland Lannister, both played by Jefferson Hall. Despite being twins, the two Lannisters on House of the Dragon could not be more different. Jason is the haughty lord of Casterly Rock whose attempts to court Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and ingratiate himself with King Viserys (Paddy Considine) are some of the episode’s most facepalm-worthy moments. Meanwhile, his younger brother Tyland is the new Master of Ships on Viserys’ Small Council, and is much more reserved and dutiful.

“Tyland becomes so entwined at the court and learns so much so quickly that he changes,” Hall explained to Vulture. “So, like, at a family dinner, Jason’s talking about the latest girl he’s fucked or the wine he’s drunk or the hunt he’s been on, whereas Tyland’s got some trade secrets up his sleeve he has to swallow and keep to himself. It’s going to be more of a conflict for him to want to share things with his family.”

"In George’s world, the firstborn twin is the one that gets all the perks, receives the majority of the inheritance and the kingdom. Being a minute older, Jason has grown up with this sense of entitlement that he will be the Lord of Casterly Rock and Tyland will not.The way I looked at that idea of Tyland growing up with that disparity was that he’d developed perseverance, defiance, working hard to get what he wants by his own merit. When he goes to King’s Landing, he’s going there not through nepotism, but through having worked hard and understanding what he does, and with an objective to do a good job. He’s a little more resilient and patient and smarter due to his upbringing. Jason’s the spoiled one, really, and this sense of entitlement puts him in a frustrating position when things don’t go his way."

Jefferson Hall thinks House of the Dragon producers forgot he was on Game of Thrones

Hall is unique among the cast of House of the Dragon in that he was actually on Game of Thrones as well. He played Ser Hugh of the Vale in the show’s first season, an upstart knight who Ned Stark believes was complicit in the murder of Jon Arryn. Before Ned can get answers from Ser Hugh, he’s killed during a tourney, taking everything he knows to the grave with him. It was a small enough part that it’s not too distracting to see Hall again in House of the Dragon.

“I’m not sure they knew I’d been in it before,” Hall laughed. “Maybe I specialize in unremarkable performances, which might be to my benefit.”

But what was it like, returning to Westeros all these years later? “Very bizarre, to be honest. When I first did it, I was working with Alfie Allen [Thrones’ Theon Greyjoy] on another job, and he had this book with a dragon on the front. He roughly explained the premise, which just sounded nutty and implausible to me. I was like, ‘Good luck with that. It’s never going to work.’ [Laughs.] Then I had an audition for it, and when you have an audition, you go, ‘It’s brilliant.’ Your mind switches.”

"Arriving on set in Northern Ireland ten years ago or so, it was unknown. It still had that feeling of, ‘Shit, is this going to work?’ I remember hanging out with Kit [Harington, a.k.a. Jon Snow] and those guys, and they’re all desperately doing press-ups and trying to figure things out. Walking to the studios at Warner Bros. for House of the Dragon and seeing carved statues 70 feet high or whatever in this incredible set … It was a very different energy: Wow, this is high pressure, and a lot to live up to."

Speaking of a lot to live up to, Hall is portraying a distant ancestor of some of Game of Thrones’ most recognizable characters: Tyrion, Cersei, and Jaime Lannister. He tried not to think too much about the iconic performances by Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, and Nikolai Coster-Waldeau when bringing Jason and Tyland to life.

“Yeah, the Essence of Lannister perfume — I had a little squirt of that. But really, I had to put it out of my mind. [Initially] I thought, Oh, I’ve got to be a little Tyrion, a little Cersei, a little Jaime. But then if I think about my grandfather or my great-grandfather, there’s barely any connection. So I had to forget about those guys completely and look at it as fresh characters with fresh journeys. That was the hardest thing, really: Putting the Lannisters and those wonderful performances we know and love from Game of Thrones out of my mind and going, ‘This is a completely new character who happens to have the surname Lannister.'”

Jason Lannister is a hilariously awful gift-giver. “It’s how some people bring toasters”

House of the Dragon has been a pretty serious show so far, without any regular comedic relief characters like Tyrion Lannister or Bronn to call its own. Thankfully, Tyrion’s great-great-great-great-grandfather Jason also has the comedy gene. One of his funniest moments comes when he gives his liege lord King Viserys an ornate spear to use during the royal hunt, which Viserys isn’t particularly enthused about.

“We had a lot of fun with the spear. When we saw it, I was like, Oh, shit, they’ve really gone to town on this. It’s an awful present to bring. It’s like how some people bring toasters,” said Hall. “But he’s really proud of this gift. He spends a lot of time with it in his hands. Unfortunately, I don’t think Viserys is awfully impressed with it.”

Later on in the episode, Viserys uses the spear from Tyland to kill a hart. It’s one of the emotional high points of the episode, because it’s clear the king really doesn’t want to be slaughtering this innocent animal for sport. From the sounds of it, the actual filming of the scene was much less emotional.

“We spent a day in a forest just outside this small town in England with two men dressed in blue jumpsuits, pretending to be a deer, which wasn’t emotional. It was just, ‘Don’t laugh at the two men doing panto deer acting like Blue Man Group.’ It was really difficult,” recalled Hall. “But Paddy is such a committed actor, and watching him, it was like he was really going through it. I remember thinking, God, this guy’s got a lot on his plate, and the pressure that he’s under is crippling. The way he uses the spear and then hands it back to Jason is quite poignant.”

Jeffreson Hall has actually read the source material for House of the Dragon

From wigs to prosthetics to remembering intricate family histories, acting on a Game of Thrones show is tough. Yet Hall faces unique challenges even by the standards of this franchise, since he’s playing twin characters. The advancements of CGI helped bring Hall’s dual performance to the screen, but in regards to his actual performance he still had to get across all the nuances of both characters when acting alone.

“It’s a nightmare,” Hall said. “Well, I’ve always wanted to work with myself — I’m a big fan — so that was good. But they say never meet your heroes, so there was that. [Laughs.] Technically, I worked with a wonderful chap named Andy who was playing the other brother depending on who I was playing, adopting mannerisms for each brother. He was very patient with my petulance and frustrations, because it was demanding in that respect. But it was fun through the scenes where you’re sitting next to yourself, essentially giving each other disparaging looks.”

Unlike many of his House of the Dragon costars, Jefferson Hall has read Fire & Blood, the book by George R.R. Martin upon which the show is based. Fire & Blood is a “fake history” book that tells the story of this period based on different, often conflicting accounts. So Hall had some background to work with, though not as much as you’d think given the nature of the book.

“You have two different perspectives, but there’s also a lot of decisions you have to make in your head with your backstory, what isn’t on the page, what isn’t in the book at this stage,” Hall said. “I don’t know whether you read any of Fire & Blood, but often a lot of the passages will end with, ‘But according to this guy, maybe that didn’t happen.’ We don’t have a hell of a lot of concrete information, so really it’s playing one step at a time and trying not to get ahead of yourself with the decisions you make.”

"It’s going to be down to [co-showrunners] Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal, who make the executive decision on what’s really true. They’re dealing with the idea of stories. If you look at someone like Richard III in British history, who was described as a very malevolent, evil, hunchback king — in certain other accounts, people say that he was an incredible warrior and his shoulder was misshapen because he used a sword so much. History is told by the winners. To tell a story objectively, that’s not being told by the winners, is the challenge that Miguel and Ryan have to deal with.But it does give you a sense that you don’t know whether you’re going to live or die on these shows. I did three years on Vikings, and there was a producer, Keith Thompson, who was a very nice man from the North — but he’d come over to you and say, “Just to let you know, next week you’ll be dead.” We’d be having coffee in the greenroom and he’d come over and we’d be like, Fuck, it’s Keith. “Can I have a word?” If you heard that, you were toast. [Laughs.] There’s the same feeling on this show. We all have no idea, really, what’s going to happen, which doesn’t let you get ahead of yourself. Sometimes you go, Well, I read the book, and I’m going to be the hero at the end. You sniff the fart a bit too much. When you’re genuinely in a state of, Is this my last week?, that sort of energy keeps you present and focused on the moment."

Here’s hoping we’ll see quite a bit more from Hall and his Lannister twins before he gets that kind of call.

House of the Dragon premieres new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

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