Paddy Considine (‘House of the Dragon’): King Viserys ‘was the culmination of a lot of years of hard work for me’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

“He is my favorite character I ever played,” admits Paddy Considine about his pivotal role as reluctant King Viserys on “House of the Dragon.” For our recent webchat he adds, “I felt like I earned it. He was the culmination of a lot of years of hard work for me. I was keen to play a character like that. I had gone on such a massive journey with acting from at times wanting to quit and being riddled with self-doubt,” he reveals. “He came along at the right time, where I had enough experience and confidence to be able to just really jump in and play him quite fearlessly.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

SEE Memo to awards voters: Paddy Considine gives the performance of his career in ‘House of the Dragon’

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“House of the Dragon,” the prequel series to HBO’s megahit “Game of Thrones” was created by author George R.R. Martin and writer/producer Ryan Condal, and stars Considine as the Targaryen king, chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed Old King Jaehaerys Targaryen at the Great Council at Harrenhal. Viserys is a decent and sage leader, who wishes to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy, even in the face of great turmoil. Considine stars alongside Emmy nominee Matt Smith (“The Crown”) as Prince Daemon Targaryen and Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, among a sprawling cast that includes Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint and Eve Best. The 10-episode first season is set two centuries before the events of “Game of Thrones,” 172 years before the birth of the now-iconic “Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), depicting the events leading up to and covering the bloody Targaryen civil war of succession known as the “Dance of the Dragons.”

Considine’s version of Viserys is wise and stoic, but slowly deteriorating after he’s inflicted with a horrible disease, building towards a devastating swan-song performance in “Lord of the Tides,” the eighth episode of the series. The once upstanding man of honor has withered away in agonizing pain, leaving a legacy of rivalry and blood-lust in a battle to the death over the coveted iron throne that has in essence rejected him. It was a challenge for the actor because the series was typically filmed completely out of order. “I had to very much map the journey of this character in his physical decline, because we started shooting episode seven, where he’d already withered away so much with illness. That was our starting point. So it was almost like we had to track it back, really, and that was part of the joy of playing him,” he explains.

“I don’t think he’s the right guy for the job. I think he’s too sensitive and emotional to be a king. But I thought that was interesting about a character like him in that world is that he wasn’t corrupted by power. He wasn’t seduced by that and he didn’t abuse privilege. He was a good person, but once he started getting ill, he allowed the illness to take over him, and eventually ends up disappearing into the illness and uses it uses it as an excuse to not have to deal with his own duty,” he says. “I thought it was a really interesting thing that this throne is almost a sort of cursed, magical property that will reject you if you’re the wrong person for it. I love the fact that he never got corrupted by the crown, but he did get corrupted by the actual seat itself in that it infected him and took over his entire body. I thought that was just an interesting thing to play story-wise, that the very seat he’s on has rejected him.”

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