SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from Sunday’s episode of House of the Dragon titled “The Red Sowing.”
Rhaenyra has finally found someone to occupy the prickly back of Vermithor.
In Sunday’s episode of the HBO drama, the queen (Emma D’Arcy) has a casting call, of sorts, for local dragonseeds who could master a fire breather for war. Many people perished during the deadly audition — except for a brave bloke named Hugh Hammer.
Does that mean Hugh has some sort of Targaryen blood pulsing through his bastard veins? Maybe, maybe not. One thing’s for sure, though: Vermithor is all his to ride.
Here, the U.K. actor who plays Hugh talks about shooting the pivotal scene and whether he’ll stick around Westeros for a good long time.
DEADLINE Isn’t that cool? You can say you have a dragon now. That’s your identity.
KIERAN BEW Yeah. I quite like the way that Rhaenyra says Vermithor. I really love that.
DEADLINE Can you talk about your audition? Were you told upfront that you would be taming a dragon?
BEW I was not told that, but of course the source materials are out there and whenever you get an audition for anything, you try to scour for information and clues to load your audition so you do the best possible job. When I got the audition, it wasn’t Hugh Hammer, it was just HH because everything’s super top secret these days. You normally have to sign NDAs to get sides, and there were definitely name changes within the text that I had, but they were extremely exciting scenes. And yes, I knew that he was eventually going to claim a dragon. It felt like the stakes were really, really high because I desperately wanted a dragon. I mean, who wouldn’t want one?
DEADLINE How long ago did you shoot Sunday’s scene?
BEW August of last year. We filmed it mainly through August and it was absolutely one of the most fun things I’d ever had to do in my life.
DEADLINE So I need you to break it down. Did it start with lots of running with extras?
BEW For the journey to the Dragon Mount, we filmed some of that in Wales. That’s the journey out of Kings Landing to Dragon Stone in the secret of the night. We were sort of a long line of extras for a while. We shot in the sewers that they used for the blood and cheese sequence that they built … these phenomenal sets at our studios. The journey sort of trudged through there, and then eventually we got to Dragon Mount itself and we come out onto a plinth. We spent quite a few days shooting on the set where that plinth is pretty raised off the ground. We had crash mats on either side, but you’re talking about a 30-foot drop, 20-foot drop off either side. So you’ve got to be super careful. And then you’re talking like 3-meter long flame throwers and people getting set on fire and fire gel and people running through it. I think my wig cost about 20,000 pounds. So when you’re running through all of this fire, there’s all sorts of things that go through your mind about the different dangers. Don’t fall off the side, don’t get set on fire. Don’t forget your cues. Don’t forget, there’s a huge dragon behind you. And that was just on the top of the plinth. And then there was days and days spent on the bottom of the dragon pit running through the slate and throwing myself on the ground.
DEADLINE I love that you were concerned about your wig. So you were literally around fire. That wasn’t CG magic?
BEW There was just a phenomenal amount of fire. The head of our stunt department has got to be one of the best in the business and certainly one of the best I’ve ever worked with. The amount of firework he’s done is kind of legendary. So yeah, he knows when we’re safe and how many feet we can be away from somebody, but there were multiple people on fire at multiple different areas while we’re running through. And of course they’re filming. We’re constantly looking at the safety aspects. It is a dangerous business and you have to be careful. But it’s so much fun. One of the nights we shot out in the open air because they burned so many people at once. I think it was the biggest burn they’ve ever done on Game of Thrones and we had to be outside. It was about 40 or something. Being around that itself is incredibly special to be part of. And then be the person who is not supposed to get set on fire is also quite a lot of pressure.
DEADLINE So let’s recap your parentage. So we know you were conceived in a brothel, correct?
BEW Well, yes, potentially a brothel. I don’t think Hugh necessarily knows exactly where he was conceived, but he knows what his mom had been up to.
DEADLINE Do you know who your dad is? Do you know your last name?
BEW I know exactly who I am. I don’t know who my dad is, but I know exactly who my mom is. My mom is a very specific person in the book and she comes with an incredible history of behaviors and defiance. And as I say in the show, he really struggled with that. He’s never spoken about his real heritage to his wife. He’s never told his wife who his mom is because he’s ashamed. And there’s a whole history that he’s tried to sort of ignore to try to live a different life, being an illegitimate part of this massive family. He’s been living in a particular way, trying to be an honorable, a decent dad and a member of society. And he’s been doing a decent enough job, but things are about to change.
DEADLINE Do you think we’ll ever find out who Hugh’s dad is?
BEW I’m not sure. Maybe one day. I think that the significant part is that my mom is a specific person who exists in the books and who is the operative person.
DEADLINE Will we see you riding the dragon in the finale?
BEW Oh, you’ll have to see. I couldn’t possibly say.
DEADLINE And are you able to say if you’re coming back next season?
BEW I am most definitely coming back.
DEADLINE Where do fans know you the most from?
BEW I made a show called Warrior for Cinemax, which ended up on HBO. It was a HBO Cinemax production, and I filmed more episodes of that with Loni Peristere, who directed episode seven of House of the Dragon, than any other director. I’ve never made more TV with a different director. So Loni is an incredibly good friend and I couldn’t think of anybody I’d want to work with on this episode more. For Warrior, I played a northern Irish cop called Big Bill. It was a TV show that’s set in San Francisco in 1878 and it’s about the Chinese diaspora, the Chinese Tong war gangs. And I play Big Bill O’Hara, who’s a northern Irish gambling cop with a big family who’s probably…up until now … my favorite character I’ve ever played. I did three seasons of that, so people know me as Bill.
DEADLINE So I imagine you had to keep this a secret from all the friends and family?
BEW Yes, I did, although I do have a 3-year-old boy who has grown up understanding that I got to work and hug a dragon every day and he desperately wants to be a dragon rider when he grows up. And he came to work with me one day and was very lucky. He got have a look at the armory and shoot a crossbow across the room. So he’s been spoiled rotten. And he did know that I had a dragon in the show. So I’ve been trying to keep him quiet for all these months. So he doesn’t tell everybody that daddy’s got a big dragon called Vermithor.