‘House of the Dragon’: Lord Larys Strong’s Uncomfortable Foot Scene Did Not Have an Intimacy Coordinator
House of the Dragon Episode 9 featured an especially uncomfortable scene with Lord Larys Strong. Game of Thrones and its prequel have their share of difficult subjects, including incestuous relationships. However, the latest scene in House of the Dragon makes fans squirm for a very different reason.
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Episode 9.]
Lord Larys Strong shares secrets with Alicent in ‘House of the Dragon’
In House of the Dragon, Lord Larys Strong acts as Lord Confessor. He is privy to all the secrets circulating in the castle and shares these with Queen Alicent Hightower. However, Larys clearly isn’t doing this for Alicent out of the kindness of his heart.
At first, it seemed that ambition was Larys’ motivator. After all, he had his own brother and father killed to become Lord of Harrenhal. Larys also held these murders over Alicent’s head. He operated under the guise that he killed Lyonel and Harwin to fulfill Alicent’s wish for her father to return as Hand, though Alicent never asked him to commit murder.
A scene in House of the Dragon Episode 9 reveals that Alicent and Larys’ relationship is even more twisted. Throughout the episode, Alicent and her father, Otto Hightower, race against each other to find Aegon first. Both wish to exercise their influence over him before he is crowned king.
‘House of the Dragon’ director breaks down uncomfortable episode 9 foot scene
Later, Larys dangles information about how Otto found Aegon first over Alicent’s head. The camera lingers on his club foot. Alicent then sighs, takes off her shoes, and places her feet on the table between them. Eventually, she also takes off her stockings.
Clare Kilner, who directed episode 9, described what happens next during an interview with EW for the West of Westeros podcast. Larys is “looking at her feet and then having a wank, basically,” Kilner stated.
Kilner continued, praising episode 9 writer Sara Hess. “Her mind is incredible. I mean, she really wrote us a wonderful episode, I have to say. But, yeah, that was an interesting scene, actually… Funnily enough, you get the intimacy coordinators [for] all the nudity, but they don’t think about it for this,” she stated. “It’s so intrusive and invasive. It’s a really dirty scene.”
‘House of the Dragon’ intimacy coordinator is present for nude scenes
House of the Dragon is more cautious than Game of Thrones regarding intimate scenes. So far, the prequel has featured a lot less sex and nudity. Intimacy coordinator Miriam Lucia was also brought on board to work with the actors.
“My job is to ensure that there’s a safe environment,” Lucia said while speaking to Deadline. “And that was apparent on House Of The Dragon. It was very clear that the way the sex scenes were going to be approached, the way that the cast were going to be informed of what was expected of them, was different. Things were not just thrown in during the shoot.”
House of the Dragon airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
