House of the Dragon‘s Ewan Mitchell has opened up about filming Aemond’s nude scene and why he avoided prosthetics.
Like Game of Thrones before it, House of the Dragon is no stranger to graphic nude scenes and ‘The Burning Mill’ features a very memorable one. In the episode, King Aegon visits a brothel with his friends only to stumble across his younger brother Aemond naked in the arms of brothel owner Sylvi. Aegon makes fun of Aemond and Aemond stands up totally naked.
Now, Ewan has spoken about what filming Aemond’s nude scene was like and why it was important to “shock” viewers.
Speaking to Vulture about the nude scene, Ewan revealed that he was given the choice to wear as much or as little as he felt comfortable with. He said: “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.”
Explaining further, Ewan said: “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.”
Ewan continued: “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.”
Meanwhile, director Geeta Patel praised Ewan. She told Variety: “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.’
She added: “That shift, from someone who’s vulnerable to literally watching him put on his armour, was what we were going for. […] 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.”
Geeta then confirmed that Ewan didn’t wear any prosthetics saying: “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.”
