‘House of the Dragon’: Paddy Considine Recalls ‘Dreadful’ Read Through of Viserys’ Final Episode
The final House of the Dragon episode for Paddy Considine was a doozy. The show is still feeling the ripple effects of it a week later and it will probably last at least until next season. However, the first reading of the script for episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides,” had Considine and the creators of the show worried.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon.]
Considine was a guest on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on Oct. 14. Discussing his final episode on House of the Dragons, Considine shared how “dreadful” the episode read through was, and how they fixed it. The season finale of House of the Dragon airs Sunday on HBO Max.
Reading the ‘Lord of Tides’ script did not convey its magnitude
It’s standard practice for the cast to read the script before filming the episode. “The Lord of the Tides” concerns the death of King Viserys, so anything less than a heartbroken reaction wasn’t going to cut it.
“What happened early on was we did a dreadful readthrough,” Considine said on Happy Sad Confused. “It was COVID. We were all 20 meters apart from each other. It felt like we were doing it on megaphones, it was like in a spaceship. It was odd, it was weird. Everyone was projecting and all this s***, it was horrible.”
‘House of the Dragon’ EP Miguel Sapochnik and Paddy Considine knew how to fix it
Considine recalled executive producer Miguel Sapochnik approaching him with concern over the monumental House of the Dragon episode he’d just heard read. But, together, they knew what the show needed when it rolled before cameras.
“Afterwards Miguel looked worried,” Considine said. “I thought ‘oh, here’s the part where they know they’ve f***ed up and they’ve hired the wrong person.’ He went, ‘We need to put more Paddy in it.’ And I went, ‘OK.’ And he went, ‘It’s missing Paddy.’ I just went bang, you f***ing got it, then. If you want Paddy, let’s do it. And it just gave me the confidence and the license to go right, I’m bringing everything to him. And that’s what I did.”
They got “more Paddy” in ‘House of the Dragons’
Considine said that some of his additions to Viserys’ death scene included reaching up to touch the face of Aemma (Sian Brooke) whom he sees. Considine also whispered, “My love,” which wasn’t in the script. And it worked.
“From that moment on, when you know you’re allowed the freedom of a character and you’re not there battling over the minutiae and the nonsense that can happen sometimes, I think after so many months in, it was like just trust the guy,” Considine said. “He is Viserys. He knows the guy. You have to do that as a writer. Sometimes you just gotta hand this over to somebody and go listen, I’m here to guide you but this is your journey now.”
