House of the Dragon actors “lost their minds” over upcoming scene

We’re more than halfway through season 1 of House of the Dragon, and there are still plenty of shocking moments to come. During a roundtable discussion with /Film, showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik teased some of their favorite moments we have yet to see.

Sapochnik recalls a moment that we’ve glimpsed in trailers: Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen come to blows after years of built up spite and anger. The scene, which the showrunners dubbed “Eye for an Eye,” was apparently physically and emotionally demanding for the cast and crew and it took several days to shoot.

“There was something joyous about doing it because there literally was not enough time,” Sapochnik said. “There weren’t enough cameras. And every time we did the scene, which was about 15 minutes long, it had to end at this real moment of high tension and stress and pressure. At some point I looked over to see if Emma [D’Arcy, who plays Rhaenyra] was alive. Her eyes had become so puffy. And it was that thing of like, ‘I don’t know whether I should say to you maybe you should calm down these takes.’ But she’s so good every time, it was kind of amazing.”

Emily Cooke, who plays Alicent, confirmed that things did indeed get intense for this scene. “We just lost our minds,” she laughed. “We were in hysterics crying our eyes out. We were laughing so hard as they were trying to focus [us] … we lost the plot eventually.”

And that’s coming up in this Sunday’s new episode, “Driftmark”! Get ready.

Scene from House of the Dragon Episode 8 will “shock” audiences

Ryan Condal shared his partner’s enthusiasm for “Eye for and Eye” but had another scene in mind from Episode 8 that he thinks will shock audiences. “There is a hearing over a certain succession, not for the throne but for something else, that involves all the members of the cast,” he teased.

"Everybody come into the room carrying a lot of baggage from all of the things that happened over the course of the season and just watching that interplay come together – I think that was actually one of the last one of these big, giant multi-day scenes that we shot with a huge amount of the cast all in the same room – that one very much stands out to me because it ends in such a shocking moment that I think will be on the list of the top five most memorable moments of ‘House of the Dragon.’ I’m looking forward to seeing everyone react to that one."

There are still four episodes left before season 1 finishes and I for one am more than ready for what the cast and crew have in store.

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