‘House of the Dragon’ Stars Break Down Aegon and Helaena’s Heartbreaking Dynamic: ‘Their Loneliness Is Exacerbated’ by Each Other

When discussing “House of the Dragon” Season 2 with IndieWire, there was one aspect showrunner Ryan Condal could freely share: his excitement for new cast members to shine who didn’t have as much to do in Season 1. At the forefront of that group are Tom Glynn-Carney and Phia Saban who play siblings and spouses (that’s Westeros for ya!) Aegon and Helaena Targaryen, whose inner turmoil and troubled relationship comes to the forefront in Season 2, Episode 2.

“They’re fantastic actors, and they’re very well realized characters that we spent a lot of time thinking about and crafting them in a way that would be interesting and unexpected,” Condal told IndieWire at the Season 2 press junket. “Both of them came back in with a lot of great ideas about how to embody those characters, and what their relationship was like, their marriage was like, and I think you see all that reflected on screen.”

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Saban’s Helaena barely speaks in Season 1, but established herself as a quiet, eccentric character, whom the actor initially resurrected by way of her hunched posture. Helaena might be an “enduring mystery” to those around her, but she’s also possessed of an eerie prescience that foreshadows the tragedy of her son’s death in Episode 201, “A Son for a Son.”

For Aegon, drunk with power as he sits on the Iron Throne and giddy at the prospect of raising his own heir, the boy’s death is a blow to the ego as well as a punch to the gut. While Helaena weeps and hides, Aegon screams and rages — one internal, one external, both in excruciating pain.

“Tom and I were really aware that they’re only two people in that situation who are in the same position, and what’s heartbreaking about it is that they can’t make it OK for each other, and they don’t even know where to begin,” Saban told IndieWire. “That’s a sibling issue as well as a relationship issue — which is an amazing sentence. … I think their loneliness is exacerbated by seeing the other one and knowing they can’t do anything for each other.”

Saban shared that initially, the only scene between the married siblings was the one in 202 where they pass each other on the steps before the funeral, a small but critical moment that the actors advocated for tirelessly. The scene in Episode 1 where Aegon asks Helaena where to find Jaehaerys was added in later — their only other scene together.

“Phia and I were petitioning for a long time to have more interaction,” Glynn-Carney elaborated. “It’s still pretty minimal, but what we what we did get, we tried to make it the most of. I feel like they’re two people who are on the opposite ends of the spectrum, whatever that spectrum is. They have been forced together — they’re family, and husband and wife, mother and father to two children — and none of that was their decision, their choice. We have come at it from very different angles and tried to find some kind of connection, some sort of electricity that goes between each other.”

“I really enjoy any scene that we have together,” he continued. “She’s very unpredictable. She’s a dangerous actor in the best possible way, and I love working with people like that.”

Saban prepped for the episode by reading poems, ahead of filming and on set between setups. “I find poetry to be a really amazing way to go like — zap! there’s a whole emotion, that is completely three dimensional and complicated, and it’s this big.” For scenes like the outburst at the small council — which Glynn-Carney described as “hyenas circling each other,” the actor tried to focus on not overpreparing in order to nail the tone.

“That’s the exciting stuff. That’s when you read a script and you go, ‘Ooh, can’t wait to get to look into that,'” he said. “It was great. It was one of those ones that was kind of looming, and I was very aware that it was coming up, and didn’t want to mess it up as it’s such a pivotal moment… [Claire] provided the perfect environment and gave the best notes, and really helped me and the rest of the characters during that during that scene, those high intensity emotional moments.”

Like the rest of his costars, Glynn-Carney had words of praise for Condal, whom he calls an “encyclopedia of knowledge” when it comes to the world of George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood.”

“He was always very welcoming to my to my suggestions with Aegon, and encouraged the looseness and the freedom that I wanted to bring to him. That comes with the nature of a character like Aegon; he’s the king. He can do what he wants and dictate the tone of a room just by his status. It felt very freeing and very creatively fulfilling working with Ryan on that, and we had a laugh in the process.”

“House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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