Ewan Mitchell explains the nudity in new House of the Dragon episode: "It wasn't a choice we made lightly"

The third episode of House of the Dragon season 2, "The Burning Mill," premiered on Sunday, June 30, and gave us a ton to discuss. Not only do we get to see characters from Fire & Blood like Alys Rivers and Ulf White, but the show also introduces new plot points that didn't go down in the book. Covering more locations and characters, this episode very much feels like an episode of Game of Thrones — at least, way more than any we've seen from the prequel before. When you think of Game of Thrones, you might also think of nudity, and, well, this episode of House of the Dragon has that, too.

But while Game of Thrones was criticized for over-sexualizing its female characters, featuring many of them fully nude which negatively impacted some of the actresses who portrayed them, House of the Dragon has flipped the narrative in that a good chunk of its nudity so far has been from male characters.

Whether it's Daemon showing off his bare backside in the show's premiere or male extras in a brothel going nude, the show hasn't shied away from male nudity when it makes sense. This is especially true after the latest episode, which includes a scene of Aemond Targaryen standing up fully nude, showing him full-frontal for a few seconds.

Aemond Targaryen's public nudity makes him "bulletproof"

Speaking to Vulture, actor Ewan Mitchell breaks down why it matters for Aemond to be nude in this scene, in which Aegon and his buddies burst into a room at a pleasure house only to find Aemond with the prostitute Sylvi. "He’s humiliated by his brother and all his crew, and it’s like this switch flips," Mitchell said. "The madam is no more. All of these people in front of him? They mean nothing. He stands up, he owns it. 'Yeah, I’m bulletproof. Anything you say, it will not work.'"

Mitchell references a quote from the movie Heat as a mantra for Aemond: "Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

"Scenes like this start with a conversation about how far you’re prepared to go. It wasn’t a choice we made lightly. But it’s true to Aemond that he shocks the audience. Weakness is not part of Aemond’s vocabulary."

- Ewan Mitchell

My first reaction to this moment — after my initial surprise, of course — was that Aemond's choice to walk out fully naked is a total power move where he asserts dominance. He might not actually be that confident, but he's going to fake it for the sake of not letting his brother see him crack.

Ewan Mitchell knows his character "so well"

The episode's director Geeta Vasant Patel also spoke to Variety about Aemond's nude scene, confirming that she and Mitchell worked through the decision together. "When I spoke with him originally about the nudity, I said to him, 'Let’s just go through the story. If you don’t feel comfortable being nude, then you’re not going to be nude.' We were both on the same page in that way. We started walking through, and he walked me through his character," Patel explains. "One thing about directing that’s really important is to surrender to the actors, and the actors surrender. It’s a mutual surrendering. In this case, Ewan knew his character so well that I was listening to him and walking with him as we went through every episode before this."

As for Aemond's mindset during the scene, Patel says he's "created a persona of someone who doesn’t give a f**k."

"And so, of course, Ewan was like, 'I want to be fully nude in that moment. It’s important to me because that’s who my character is. That’s what he would do.' And that’s what we did."

- Geeta Vasant Patel

As expected, House of the Dragon viewers had strong reactions to Aemond's nudity, and I've got to admit, the memes are hilarious. Despite the inevitable humor you can find in seeing a penis on TV, however, I do think the scene really works. Aemond is so unpredictable, and knowing that he'll probably never show his true colors to his family makes for a fascinating character.

Nude or not, we'll definitely be getting more from Aemond this season of House of the Dragon as his complex personality and motives are explored further. Keep watching new episodes every Sunday night on HBO and Max.

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