He’s the King of Westeros.
Spoilers below for the second episode of “House of the Dragon” Season 2.
Tom Glynn-Carney stars in the hit “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” as King Aegon, a young monarch who is almost comically unsuited for the role.
“It’s not really a conscious decision, to be honest,” Glynn-Carney, 29, told The Post about finding the humor.
“He’s very loose and very free. I want to lean into that. That [comedy] happens just organically, I think. The way he’s written and the way he’s perceived by other people, I do find him quite funny. My focus is just to bring some authenticity to what could otherwise be quite a distant world that’s hard to access. I work off impulse a lot, and instinct, rather than planning things meticulously.”
The show follows a civil war around 200 years before the events of “GoT.” Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) is the heir to the Iron Throne, but her half-brother, Aegon, and his supporters have usurped her.
Season 2 kicked off with Rhaenyra’s husband Daemon (Matt Smith) sending assassins to kill Aegon’s vicious brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), but they botched the attempt and instead, they ended up murdering Aegon’s son.
Reeling from that tragedy, in the second episode, Aegon beheads one of the culprits, Blood (Sam C. Wilson).
“That was quite intense,” Glynn-Carney said, adding that he and Wilson didn’t speak to each other on the day of filming.
“He was very much in the zone; I was in the zone. And it was a bit of a set piece. We had to get the timing right. We had a lot of stunt coordinators there, and we rehearsed what the distances would be… It was one of the more violent scenes that we see from Aegon this season. Sam was amazing. I don’t know how he didn’t pass out with the sort of gurgling he was making… It was quite horrifying, actually!”
Glynn-Carney, who was also in “Dunkirk,” said that he wasn’t a fan of “GoT” when it was airing.
“I am now. When I booked the job, I hadn’t seen it. All of my friends had, and for whatever reason, I’d missed the boat. I was like, ‘I’ve got to do my homework, I’ve got to understand what this world is.’ I blitzed through all eight seasons of it in about three weeks,” he said, noting that his favorite character was Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage).
“House of the Dragon” is a hit, as over 20 million viewers tuned into Season 1 weekly, but Glynn-Carney said that it hasn’t impacted his daily life much.
“It happens now and again,” he said, about fans recognizing him in public.
“But I think I get away with it quite a lot because I don’t look anything like I do in real life. Or, I hope!”
Between wearing a wig and being clean-shaven to play Aegon, “I rarely look like that — I look in the mirror and I don’t see myself anymore,” he said.
“I see this sort of Chucky looking doll. The whole preproduction period was designed to make him as unattractive and as vile as possible… But, it’s great to meet people who are passionate about it.”
Although Glynn-Carney called Season 1’s success “validation that we were making something worthwhile,” he said. “But you’ve got to put that to the back of your mind and focus on the job at hand, and not really engage with any of the hype or the excitement or anything. Because that can sometimes throw you off the scent.”
Since the show is based on “Fire & Blood,” a completed book from author George R.R. Martin, it’s possible for actors to look up their characters’ fates. Glynn-Carney said he’s done that for Aegon.
“I thought it’d be useful to know what his arc was. And, I didn’t really get a choice, anyway. One of my first days on set, [creators] Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik cornered me in my trailer and gave me the full rundown… I was totally onboard. And then I went and read the book — our story, at least. And it was great.”
Glynn-Carney said he enjoys playing Aegon’s “torment, and his vulnerability.”
He added, “He’s branded as a villain often, and I see him more as a tragedy. He’s heartbreaking. He’s broken in so many ways… I like to try and find those little cracks of vulnerability where we see the boyish-ness to him, and the fragility of him.”
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