Matthew Needham talks Larys Strong: “He’s done some insane things”

Like Game of Thrones before it, HBO’s House of the Dragon is filled with complicated characters. Some, like Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen, are morally gray; even while they do awful things, you can’t help but root for them.

Then there are characters like Larys Strong, the devious spymaster who ingratiated himself to Queen Alicent by murdering his own father and brother in cold blood. Matthew Needham played Larys “Clubfoot” on the show’s first season, giving viewers some memorable moments during his brief time onscreen, such as when he provided Alicent information in exchange for dirty, foot-themed favors.

In real life, Needham is not anywhere near as creepy as Larys. “It’s always nice to play someone who is very different from yourself. It’s nice to play a quiet person who watches, especially on a show like this. It was very pleasurable to be quiet on scenes and observe brilliant artists work,” the actor told ComingSoon.net.

"That’s all from the script and following clues. He says, ‘When you’re never invited to speak you learn to observe.” You know you watch. This is a very quiet person who has a very debilitating deformity in a world to people who are physically different. It makes so much sense that this is a guy who sort of sat quietly and waited and watched. I suppose I could relate to that. I’m not outgoing — I’m not an extroverted sort of person. So, I could sympathize with somebody who would rather take stock of the situation rather than inserting himself into it dynamically all of the time. That’s all script, really, and talking with directors and trying things out and staring at people creepily. [Laughs]"

Larys Strong isn’t like the Joker: “There’s more ego to him than that”

All that said, even though Needham tries to understand how Larys’ mind works, he doesn’t empathize with him, and believes the character isn’t “justified in what he does at all.”

"He’s a very disturbed — obviously — individual. I think he’s taking revenge on the world. That’s how I see him — he’s taking revenge on a world that has not treated him kindly in the most twisted way possible.The first time you see him he’s just sitting with a group of ladies and has not said a word. He’s just sitting there. In the last scene, he’s dictating policy with the Queen. He’s going, “You need to kill these people, you need to get rid of this thing now!” He’s saying it to her as if that’s what she should do. He’s dictating policy. He just doesn’t look like he is."

Larys Strong is underestimated more than once on House of the Dragon. Things generally don’t go well for people who do that, be it his own father or the spy mistress Mysaria.

Just how dangerous is Larys? Does he have any limits? “I don’t know,” admitted Needham. “There’s a real rogue’s gallery, isn’t there? He doesn’t have any allegiances. He’s not operating within the constraints of empathy or love. That’s what he says, ‘I’m quite a useful person because I don’t have these meddlesome things like emotions getting in the way.’ So, I think he’s a very dangerous person, and he’s pissed off. For everyone else, it’s about family, and there’s real human emotions behind their actions. For him, it’s not that. There’s no sort of worthy thing to him.”

That idea, that Larys is operating outside the bounds of emotions, has led more than a few fans to compare him to Batman’s arch-nemesis the Joker. But Needham doesn’t quite agree with that comparison; there’s more to Larys than a wish to simply watch the world burn.

"I don’t think he’s a complete anarchist. There’s more ego to him than that. It’s about power and about control. For somebody who has had nothing – no control, no responsibility, nobody gave him any acknowledgment, to slowly be accumulating more sway and more power, I think that’s what he’s going for.He’s only in the show for like 13 or 14 minutes, so it’s not a huge amount of screen time, but within that he’s done some insane things. But he hasn’t even started yet."

Matthew Needham talks working with Olivia Cooke and House of the Dragon season 2

Needham also took some time to gush about working with Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower), who he shares most of his biggest scenes with. “Oh, she’s so great,” Needham said of Cooke. “We bumped into each other a few weeks ago. I haven’t seen anyone in ages because we’re all busy doing other things, but we literally bumped into each other on the street. It was so nice to see her.”

"My schedule is very sporadic on House of the Dragon. I’ll slip in for a day or two days. I was gone for months at a time and then back again, so it was always a little bit like the first day of school every time — a little anxiety-inducing to come into a set like that. She was always wonderful and very collaborative. I can’t say enough nice things about her, really."

We’ll be seeing a lot more of both Alicent and Larys Strong come House of the Dragon season 2. With the greens and blacks heading to war, no doubt the devious Master of Whispers will get up to quite a lot of backstabbing.

But Needham won’t be the one to spill the beans about what lies ahead for Larys. “Annoyingly, I was told under pain of torture not to say a single thing about Season 2. There are ninjas nearby. I’m so sorry,” he laughed.

House of the Dragon season 2 is expected sometime in 2024. Season 1 is streaming now on HBO Max.

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