‘House of the Dragon’ Star Paddy Considine on Embodying Good King Viserys Targaryen

One of the greatest pleasures of the 2023 Emmy Awards season happened when I had the opportunity to virtually sit down with House of the Dragon star Paddy Considine.

His performance as the tragic, tragically decaying, King Viserys I captivated the audiences’ attention from the start of the Game of Thrones prequel series. Winning the throne after a vote held by the lords of Westeros over his cousin Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best), Viserys constantly faces immense pressure that he may not be equipped to handle. He must hold the kingdom together in its very tenuous peace, consistently threatened by his brother Daemon (Matt Smith). He also needs to confront aggression against his selected successor, daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock, Emma D’Arcy). All of this happens while he suffers from a form of leprosy that causes persistent, debilitating rot over the course of a decade.

The part would appear daunting for any actor, but Considine approaches the role by breaking it down into its simplest and most relatable parts. Both he and Viserys are fathers who have experienced tragic personal losses. Despite the Shakespearean trappings of the series, Considine made Viserys an eminently human character, a good kind whose greatest fault may be his penchant for indecision.

Here, in my interview with Considine, we talk about how he approach building the character of Viserys and how he initially understood the king’s inner self. He reveals the true turning point in his evolution to the character after performed the initial House of the Dragon read-through via Zoom. Considine also goes into depth on creating Viserys’s classic final walk to the Iron Throne and the accidental kindness offered by Matt Smith that made it into the final cut.

This conversation was surprising and a bit of a revelation to me as I’d made all kinds of presumptions about how an actor approaches a role such as King Viserys I. Turns out all of my presumptions were wrong, and I loved that.

House of the Dragon airs in its entirety on MAX.