House of the Dragon has never been one to shy away from nude scenes, but the most recent one involving Aemond was certainly unexpected! It’s the first time we’ve had a full frontal nude scene in House of the Dragon and something that was planned to help portray the character of Aemond on a deeper level.

Near the end of episode three, King Aegon walks onto Aemond being held in the arms of a brothel worker in a very emotionally intimate moment. Aegon starts mocking his brother and eventually, Aemond decides to leave the room so he no longer has to listen to him. However, Aemon walks out completely nude, leaving House of the Dragon viewers to see quite literally everything.

Via HBO

Ewan Mitchell, who plays Aemond, revealed more about the scene to Vulture: “Scenes like this start with a conversation about how far you’re prepared to go. It wasn’t a choice we made lightly. But it’s true to Aemond that he shocks the audience. Weakness is not part of Aemond’s vocabulary.

“Aegon catches Aemond in a vulnerable spot. Picking up the script for the first time and seeing those brothel scenes in episodes two and three, I saw a brilliant opportunity to offer a rare glimpse of his vulnerability. You only ever see him in his Targaryen blacks, so to see him in that world — not only that but then humiliated by his brother — is quite shocking.”

Via HBO

House of the Dragon director Geeta Patel spoke to Variety about how the scene helped expand upon Aemond’s character. She said: “Ewan is such a great actor. He understands what he needs to do in order to portray Aemond. When I spoke with him originally about the nudity, I said to him, ‘Let’s just go through the story. If you don’t feel comfortable being nude, then you’re not going to be nude.’ We were both on the same page in that way,” she said.

She continued: “That shift, from someone who’s vulnerable to literally watching him put on his armour, was what we were going for in that scene. It’s one of the few times you see the young child in him and you see the pain in him. Slowly he starts putting on his armour and when he stands up, the fact that he doesn’t care that you see his penis is such a strong visceral shift. And so, of course, Ewan was like, ‘I want to be fully nude in that moment. It’s important to me because that’s who my character is. That’s what he would do.’ And that’s what we did.”