“It is I who trains with the sword, who rides the largest dragon in the world. I’m next in line to the throne. Should they come looking for me, I intend to be found.” — Aemond Targaryen, Season One, “House of the Dragon”
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He’s been called by critic Sean Collins “a dashing young sociopath” and an “anime villain in human form. Ewan Mitchell has brought the nuanced villain Aemond Targaryen to life and the world has taken notice.
Ewan Mitchell is the lethal Aemond Targaryen in ‘House of the Dragon.’
Mitchell has been in a swirl of press tours over a good part of the last six weeks, talking about working with Matt Smith, discussing key scenes and his influences as an actor.
Those who watched “The Last Kingdom” know him as Osferth. He was in one of my favorite movies of 2023, “Saltburn” where he had a small role as an Oxford nerd named Michael Gavey.
Now he’s on a map way larger than the ones he strategically puts coins on in HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” a prequel to the hugely successful, “Game of Thrones.” I was able to ask him about the new challenges he faced playing Aemond this season and he said it was “getting my body physically in shape for those scenes in episodes two and three.”
You’ll just have to watch it to know which scenes he’s referring to. Mitchell said it involved “a lot of CrossFit, a lot of boxing, a lot of chicken, a lot of running.”
The end goal was to “make the audience believe this kid has very much developed himself into a lethal weapon. That’s very much what Aemond is physically — he doesn’t need a suit of armor or he doesn’t need to brandish a Valyrian steel sword to look like he could end your life. He can do all that without any of that.”
He said he took inspiration from a multitude of things including a painting called “The Fallen Angel” and Brad Pitt in “Fight Club.”
He also says he’s taken ideas from James Gandolfini in “The Sopranos.”
“Whenever he wanted to feel the heat in a scene or feel the tension in his character, he would place a stone in his shoe.” He likened that to the tension going on with Aemond so he put the coin you see in episode two (and subsequently what it meant and represented) in his boots.
In the first season, Mitchell also made a choice to avoid eye contact with Matt Smith to create more tension between Aemond and Daemon. When the two finally make eye contact at that banquet scene, Mitchell says, “it was like capturing lightning in a bottle.” “He idolizes Daemon Targaryen, he possesses that same kind of rogue prince persona,” he says of Aemond. He also seems obsessed with, and probably likes the idea his Uncle Daemon wants to kill him — except hasn’t been able to carry it out himself.
Mitchell gravitates towards “films that might challenge your perspective on people.” He cites Orson Welles “Citizen Kane” and Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” as two that have informed his characterization of Aemond.
“They follow a character you might feel you can relate to on some wavelength but then halfway through the film, they deceive you. You look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, why did I ever feel like I knew this person? I don’t know this person at all.”
His Prince Aemond is wicked, cunning and vulnerable. Mitchell pulls this off with his talent, unique looks and physicality. Astute strategist, skilled fighter — add sly thief to that resumé because he steals every scene he’s in.
Catch “House of the Dragon” Season 2 on HBO and HBO GO.
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