Kieran Bew is aware of the ability of excellent facial hair. He credit the search for Hugh Hammer’s success taming the large Vermithor in Home of the Dragon’s seventh episode of the season, “The Crimson Sowing.”
“I had a giant beard, and all people was discussing whether or not I ought to shave it off or not,” Bew says. “And I simply stated: I really like Vermithor’s design of his tooth, kind of wanting like they’re getting in all completely different instructions; like if he bit you, it might be essentially the most painful factor, virtually like being trapped in an Iron Maiden or one thing. And I felt prefer it was a barely humorous joke about individuals who have canines, find yourself wanting like their canines.”
Bew was conscious that Hugh’s entire season arc was main as much as his showdown with Vermithor, and conscious of what number of aesthetic selections had been there to arrange the depth of the choice to go to Dragonstone: He saved the beard, and his hair the identical coloration as Daemon’s (if not Viserys’), with a little bit of Bew’s personal pure hue blended personal. And as he watched Hugh’s agitation with the ruling class of King’s Touchdown develop, Bew discovered the position in little beats, like being so determined for meals that he punches a fellow commoner to get a bag.
To him, the scenes had been “all the time like a skeleton” for the bigger character arc. However like every good actor (or, as is the case with decoding numerous Fireplace & Blood’s textbook-like account, historian), it was his job to piece collectively the lived humanity between that.
“To get given a scene the place my character is revealing to his spouse one thing huge […] and he’s arguing to go on a suicide mission,” Bew marvels. “That’s how a lot he’s determined to maintain {that a} secret. Due to disgrace, due to how [his mom] behaved, due to his upbringing, due to how painful it was.
“He’s been making an attempt to do one thing else. And now he’s saying: Really that is the one factor I can do. I’m in a lot ache; I’ve bought to do one thing, I’ve bought to do that.”
And so, Bew took all that power into that remaining scene of episode 7, the place Rhaenyra’s plans to search out Vermithor a rider go awry. To him, Hugh’s desperation — to do one thing, to matter — was close to suicidal, even when he’s nonetheless afraid within the second. “He’s come all this fashion, the stakes are so excessive, he thinks the cube is barely loaded in his favor. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless fucking terrifying,” Bew says. “How do you strategize in opposition to one thing that may transfer so shortly and squash you and drop individuals in your head on fireplace?”
In fact, his delay had some upside. “The one factor about [it] going to shit is: the chances enhance.”
For inspiration for what the last word second of connection ought to really feel like for Hugh and the Bronze Fury, Bew drew from his time on set — particularly, approaching a crew member’s little Yorkshire terrier on set, who saved making an attempt to go for the tennis ball eyes of pre-CG Vermithor.
“In the mean time of claiming, it needs to be this, the place this canine likes me, this canine is connecting to me,” Bew says, acknowledging there’s a distinction between a tiny terrier and a dragon the dimensions of 4 homes. “It’s a connection that’s, like, that delicate. However earlier than we get there, it’s overwhelming. And it’s terrifying. And it requires throwing every part in.”
And in Bew’s thoughts, every part about the way in which Hugh claims Vermithor comes from that desperation. In contrast to different dragons, Vermithor is on the lookout for a rider who can, because the saying goes, match his freak. So it’s no shock that Hugh’s aggressive method spoke to the mighty dragon, provided that nothing about the way in which Hugh claims Vermithor is selfless, in that regard — even stepping in because the dragon targets one other Targaryen bastard. In any case, there’s nothing just like the worry of failure to show one thing unattainable right into a race.
“He’s been pushed to this. One thing about rising up beneath the shadow of the aristocracy, the household that he has been rejected from that he’s not a part of — he’s not solely not a part of it, he’s related to it in a method that is stuffed with disgrace, that he’s offended about,” Bew says. “If Vermithor chooses her, then what occurs to me?”