Like anyone who’s had a hit taken out on him that resulted in the death of a nephew, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) starts the second episode of House of the Dragon with a swirl of feelings. But — still a little conflicted about his own slaying of his nephew at the end of season 1 — the only feeling he wants to talk about right now is how “proud” he is to be seen as a threat to someone like his uncle Daemon.
It’s unsurprising; both men are second sons who feel fit (and ready) to lead, maybe even more so than their brothers. They’re strategic thinkers, good fighters, and steely conversationalists. They’ve both been underestimated, and even their aesthetic similarities are, to Mitchell, no accident.
“I’ve always thought Aemond is Daemon’s biggest stan; so much of the image Aemond has curated over the years, it is almost like a homage to his hero,” Mitchell said in a recent roundtable. In the fog of war, Aemond sees Daemon as the adversary he’s staring down across Targaryen family lines. “Aemond idolizes Daemon; there’s almost this romantic quality that Aemond feels that Daemon got this close — or, rather, he sent people to end Aemond’s life, but he didn’t want to do it himself. […] So Aemond likes being noticed by his idol.”
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Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO
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Image: HBO
It’s a feeling Mitchell sympathizes with — and wanted to exploit in his own way with his own feelings toward Matt Smith, who he watched on Doctor Who as a kid.
“Matt Smith brought such a vibrancy and an electricity [to the Doctor], and the youthfulness that was a little more accessible to me as a kid,” Mitchell says. “So I thought there was something interesting in never taking Matt Smith off that podium. I wanted to kind of keep my distance. […] I wanted to save our eye contact for a moment that we share in episode 8 of season 1, that moment where they face off against each other at the banquet table.”
To keep the fire between them this season (even when separated by several Westerosian miles), Mitchell took inspiration from James Gandolfini’s performance in The Sopranos, recalling a story he heard about Gandolfini putting a rock in his shoe if he wanted to have anger simmering underneath the surface. “That was something I wanted to explore with Aemond, was putting this coin in my shoe going forward. It’s something that constantly reminds him going forward that Daemon got this close to ending him. And maybe there’s a guilt that Aemond feels with that.”
