Spoiler warning: The following contains details about key plot points and developments in House Of The Dragon episode six.
Let’s pour a couple out for two fine men of the realm, cut down in their prime by a conniving kinsman in the most recent episode of House Of The Dragon. We didn’t get a whole lot of screen time with Lord Lyonel Strong, played by Gavin Spokes, and his son Ser Harwin “Breakbones,” played by Ryan Corr, but they made a lasting impression. Isn’t that just the story of the Seven Kingdoms, though? Treachery and brutality win out over honor and decency almost every time. Their loss will surely be felt by fans, as well as the characters in the series, for some time to come.
Almost as soon as the sixth episode, “The Princess And The Queen,” finished airing, fans took to social media to extol the virtues and mourn the loss of Rhaenyra’s baby daddy and his daddy, who was so good at his job as Hand of the King that Viserys refused to accept his resignation. In case you were hoping for a little more time with them, we had a chance to speak with Spokes and Corr about their experiences making the show, and the audience’s reaction to their characters’ sudden demise.
The A.V. Club: Were you a Game Of Thrones fan before this?
Gavin Spokes: I wasn’t really. I’d watched probably seasons, like, one to five sporadically on different jobs, and then I’d kind of fallen away from it. Not out of not wanting to watch it, but I was just doing other stuff. And then I got offered the job, so I had to quickly dive back in and watch 80 hours of television quite quickly [Laughs].
Ryan Corr: I was. I watched the first series, I must admit, I’m sort of one of those people that likes to, if I’m invested in a series, I like to be able to watch episode after episode. So I’m a bit of a binger. Yeah.
AVC: Despite your limited presence on the show, both of your characters have had pretty universally positive responses from viewers. Have you seen or followed those reactions?
GS: I’m interested, but I don’t necessarily search it out. If it comes plopping on my lap, then I’ll read it. I’ve been interested. I did, actually, when the reviews came out, I read the reviews because I’m kind of sadist that way, I suppose.
RC: That’s sort of the highest compliment you can receive, that it’s landing that way with audiences. I spoke with [showrunners] Miguel [Sapochnik] and Ryan [Condal] early on. I think it was Ryan that spoke to me about Pedro Pascal’s character in [Game Of Thrones], the Red Viper, and how he was there for a limited amount of time but his presence lingered, long after his death and throughout the series. Obviously they’re very different characters, but they saw their impact as being similar.
AVC: Well, yeah, except Harwin actually seemed like a good and decent guy.
RC: Yeah, I wanted to explore ideas of strength other than physical strength, you know? Strength in honor and strength in love for a family and happily sitting back in the world. And I had a pretty incredible father myself who was always there, he’s always said to me my whole life, me and my sister, he sort of said, “You know, my life is about you kids, period.” And he’s very much lived that. And I always saw that as a really strong trait in him. And I guess I tried to bring ideas of that over.
AVC: Ser Lyonel was also quite likable and morally upstanding. Unfortunately, we know that those kinds of characters don’t last very long in Westeros do they?
GS: Exactly. And my dear departed son as well, yeah. The good die young. I mean, Lyonel was not very young, but yes, exactly. We keep up that tradition Ned Stark so beautifully launched for us all.
RC: We should have known, you know what I mean? Exactly. It’s like you’d be very wary of falling in love with characters on [Game Of Thrones] because they were all killed. But that was sort of one of the ideas, too. We spoke to Miguel and he said, “We want to rip their heart out.” And if that’s by helping you understand his motivations and perhaps falling for the character, falling for Rhaenyra, and how they are as a couple, and then killing them, then we’re sort of doing that job. It means that people are invested. And I think particularly when people are invested in such a short amount of time, that’s what we set out to do.
AVC: We lost a lot of time with the Strong men over that 10-year gap. What are some of the things you wish we would have seen?
RC: Yeah. HBO, are you listening? [Laughs] I think that’s up to an audience. I did have the moment when they called up and said, “You’re on Game Of Thrones!” And I was like, “Yeah!” And then it’s like, “And we kill you in episode six.” And so I sort of knew it from the start. Look, of course, I’d love to have explored watching Rhaenyra and Harwin come together and how that might have happened and, you know, possibly some of his time in the Gold Cloaks. But in the scale of this story and over how many years it spans, it’s only natural that we have to jump time.
AVC: Personally I wish we could have seen more of the family dynamic with Larys, and why he had it out for you. Do you think he intended to kill his father and brother or were they just the collateral damage of his political ambitions?
GS: I think he probably was treated badly by family, friends, and everyone. And we came up with this story, actually. Larys’ mother had died in childbirth and it was something to do with his deformity, his clubfoot, and his father never really had forgiven him. There was never any love, but that was what we’d been discussing over a few beers in the hotel one night.
AVC: Do those discussions about your characters then inform your performance?
GS: I like to know as much as I can from source material, be it from the books or comments that come through from Ryan Condal in particular about one’s character or the history of one’s family. So you don’t necessarily have to use it in the performance, but it’s better to have it as a given circumstance to just sort of bed in the foundations of who he is.
RC: We sat down in great detail with Ryan and with Miguel particularly, and just backed out who we thought these characters were and what we thought their motivations were and how he was a man that seemed to be happy to sit back and have a family and be a father. And that some of the politics of the realm didn’t seem to apply to him. You know, there’s somewhat of an anti-authoritarian streak through Harwin, probably born of him being a knight and a hunter. And I think you see it with his father in episode six, you know, where he says, “You have your honor and I have mine.”
AVC: I’m wondering if you think Harwin was a good dad, or would have been if we’d gotten to see it?
GS: Well, he looks so tender when he’s holding the child for the very first time. We got that. That’s the thing with the time jump. You don’t get as much time with these people, but yet what is there does still mean so much.
RC: We spoke about the right to earn that. In this world it’s rather unorthodox to be this open with your affection, particularly in their situation. And given that he’s called “Breakbones,” we felt like we had to earn the right to be this doting father and to show this sort of love by showing his other side as well. We shot a lot of episode six kind of early on in my time up there. And so we sort of worked backwards. And so, with the audience, we sort of had to get them to a place where we earn the right to show that side of this man and show his duality. It’s hard with the limited amount of scenes, but as you sort of said at the start, it’s about planting those anchors and letting the audience fill in those spaces for us.
AVC: What do you miss about filming the show? And what do you not miss?
GS: I’m a bit of a sucker for being on set. I miss everything. And it was a job of a lifetime, so it’s quite heartbreaking now that the chapter is kind of finished. But there is still a legacy of me being part of the Dragon dynasty, whatever that turns out to be. So it was nice to be on the journey, and I had such a wonderful experience filming. We filmed really close to where I live, so I had no complaints [Laughs]. The only time I did get grumpy was when I was left on a horse in the rain for about an hour while everyone was eating their lunch. And I said, “Is there any chance I could have a cup of tea or something, please?” That’s the only time I was grumpy.
RC: You very rarely get to work on things of such scale with such brilliant actors. And everyone’s as invested as the next person. You know, we had certain difficulties to start with, with Covid. We were one of the first shows to keep going just after lockdowns and so, you know, there was a huge Covid contingent. That part we don’t miss. You know, it sort of stifles the creative process, when you’re not allowed to be two meters away from your fellow performers and you’re not bonding and hanging out the way that you would normally. But the opportunity to be on shows of this scale and walk onto operational sets, you know, like these aren’t just set pieces. You can walk up the stairs and into the other room and find, you know, an olive plant, and then walk out into the Great Hall. You know, that’s sort of what you dream of as a young performer of being involved in.
AVC: Are you planning to continue to watch the show go on without you?
RC: Of course! Yeah, I was a fan outside of being involved in it. And I think it’s sort of indicative of how well a story goes, if you’re invested and you want to continue. So, yeah, yeah. I fell completely in love with so many of these actors. I mean, watching Matt Smith walk into the hall and you can hear a pin drop and the air being literally sucked out of a room as he goes down there, looking everyone in the eye. And watching Paddy Considine, who’s just become my new favorite actor, who has so much range and is sort of eccentric in his choices and just the most generous, lovely man to be around. It’s a masterclass, you know?
GS: I have the luxury of having been able to read a few of those scripts after my demise. So I have an idea, well, I know most of what’s coming. So I can’t wait to see how it pans out.
AVC: I know you can’t give anything away, but is there anything you’re particularly excited to see?
GS: Oh my goodness, yeah. And I think what I find even more exciting is what will happen in season two, and if it goes on beyond that. I think there’s a lot of food to be consumed. Yeah. There’s a lot of detail and a lot of exploration with these characters, particularly Rhaenyra and Alicent. I just hope people enjoy the rest of the rest of the season, and I’m sure they will. There was a lot of love and hard work that went into it.