The actor tells TheWrap that Larys is using Aegon like a chess piece with that Season 2 finale cliffhanger
“House of the Dragon” Season 2 wasn’t kind to King Aegon II, but actor Tom Glynn-Carney says to expect a resurgence in Season 3.
Halfway through the season, Aegon was burned by his brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) while the two fought Rhaenys (Eve Best) at the Battle of Rook’s Rest. Since then he’s been fading in and out of consciousness and becoming “a shell of himself.”
In the Season 2 finale, Larys (Matthew Needham) came to Aegon’s bedside and recommended the two get out of dodge before the war came to King’s Landing. After some convincing, Aegon agreed and the two were last seen carting off to parts unknown.
“There’s a fire in his eyes that I’ve certainly not seen that’ll lead us into Season 3,” Glynn-Carney told TheWrap. “This new focused, cold version of the man who wants to exact revenge.”
The actor also thinks that Larys is of two minds when it comes to if he sees a kindred spirit in Aegon, or if he is just using the king as an important piece of the chess board in the ongoing conflict for power.
“Of course there’s personal gain in it for Larys, because it’s Larys and he’s a social climber,” Glynn-Carney said. “He’s a very very smart man and knows where to be on the chess board at any point.”
Below, Glynn-Carney broke down playing a more introspective and internally angry Aegon, if the king expected to ever be sold out by Alicent, and how he views his character as “massively insecure.”
TheWrap: How did your approach to playing Aegon after being burned changed from playing the cocky version we saw at the beginning of the season?
Tom Glynn-Carney: I think he had a lot of his swag taken away from him by nature of how restricting it was — to be burned at that level you lose a lot of your movement and your confidence. When you’ve got people coming into your bedchamber to clean you up and help you go to the bathroom your dignity is the last thing on your mind.
I think he did for a while become a shell of himself, but I think now the way we see him in Episode 8, we see him quite cold and focused. There’s a fire in his eyes that I’ve certainly not seen that’ll lead us into Season 3. This new focused, cold version of the man who wants to exact revenge.
I almost described Aegon as confident rather than cocky. Has he, to you, ever been a confident person?
No, no he’s massively insecure. He’ll behave a certain way on a night out or in the Small Council and then he’ll go back to his bedchambers, and we don’t see this onscreen, but the way I believe he behaves is he goes back to a place of privacy and is running through every single interaction in his mind and kicking himself that he behaved that certain way. He’ll overanalyze everything.
He’s an incredibly self-conscious individual, but I think at this point now with how he looks, he doesn’t need to protect. He feels ugly and he wants to use his physical strength and whatever’s left to exact the amount of pain he’s been put through on Rhaenyra and Daemon.
Have you enjoyed playing a more introspective and internally angry Aegon?
Yeah, there’s a different level of energy with him for sure. I think I’m still going to enjoy this part of his journey just as much if not more. He was jovial at the start of Season 2, and Season 1 he was more under the grasps of alcohol and drug addiction.
We saw him at the beginning of this season with a spring in his step to start, and that can be a lot of fun to play and he can be a maverick in that sense. I think there’s still potential for that to be had in this new phase of his life. I don’t think his personality will be completely drained from him, it’ll just be channeled in different ways.
I know you’ve been asked about the prosthetic process a ton already, but there’s lots of gruesome descriptions of Aegon in “Fire & Blood.” Were there any parts that had you thinking, “Oh that’ll be fun to wear” or parts that you were dreading?
To be honest, I’ve never had to do it before so it was more a thing of this is a new experience. I was very lucky myself that Amanda Knight and Waldo Mason and Hannah Eccleston were around me the entire way through. They included me in those conversations on how it would be great to allow the application and pieces of prosthetic themselves to affect how I move. They wanted it to effect the way I was restricted in my movement and to inform the performance and make my life a bit easier.
But the general day-to-day of wearing it is not fun. I don’t recommend it.
To you, is Larys continuing to play the game and keeping an important piece like Aegon close at hand by suggesting they get out of King’s Landing, or does he see a kindred spirit in him?
I think it’s a bit of both. Of course there’s personal gain in it for Larys, because it’s Larys and he’s a social climber. He’s a very very smart man and knows where to be on the chess board at any point.
Equally, I think there’s a potential for it
to come out that he’s been a bit of a spy and listening to Aemond and his plans and coming back and relaying them to me. I’m sure if Aemond got his hands on that information it would be hell to pay for Larys.
During their conversation Aegon asks if maybe the people could come to call him “The Realm’s Delight” like that did Rhaenyra in her youth. Is that him being delusional into wanting to be as beloved as her when she was his age?
I read that as him trying to have some optimism, trying to have some hope when he’s pretty much hopeless at that point. There’s a childlike optimism that has remained and I love that about him.
The longer that can remain in him, he may stand a chance at surviving.
He isn’t aware that Alicent sells him out in the final moments of the season but Aegon has quite a bit of affection for his mom still. Is being sold out by her something he expects or would ever expect?
Yeah for sure, but I think the reason that she hasn’t sold him out sooner is there’s a lot for her in the Red Keep. She’s comfortable, she’s looked after, she’s fed. She’s probably seen that her time there is up and she’s no longer of use, especially as Aemond’s banished her from the Small Council.
She knows what’s good for her. She’s also a hyper-intelligent woman and she’s not going to put herself in a position where she’s worse off.
We did see a sweeter side to Aegon this season. He tried to understand and hear out the smallfolk in the early season and his and Sunfyre’s connection quickly became a fan-favorite. Do you think him being burned and brought down a peg in certain regards could have ultimately made him a better ruler?
It would have been a rocky road, there would have been hiccups on the way for sure and wouldn’t have been plain sailing in any aspect. Yeah given the opportunity.
Given the ear of someone who wasn’t going to shut him down immediately, and listen to his ideas and nurture his enthusiasm in a way that made it beneficial. Someone that made it feel like he was doing something rather than just being a spare part would have been great, but he was made to feel useless and like a chess piece in someone else’s game. Understandably, he turned his back on that and took matters into his own hands which has now left him in this position.
“House of the Dragon” Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Max.