House Of The Dragon’s Matt Smith Improvised A Key Scene In Episode 8

House Of The Dragon is quickly becoming one of the best TV shows of 2022, with each episode better than the last.

This past Sunday’s episode, ‘The Lord Of The Tides’, was no exception, largely thanks to the powerful, award-worthy performance of Paddy Considine as King Viserys I.

As I noted in my review of the episode, Considine steals every scene he’s in. His desire to see his loved ones “put aside your petty grievances” and try to get along is beautiful but ultimately tragic.

His passing sets the stage for the Dance of Dragons, the bloody, fiery civil war that erupts when Alicent and the Hightowers decide to seat Aegon on the Iron Throne despite the fact that Viserys named his daughter, Rhaenyra, as heir.

One of the most powerful scenes in the latest episode takes place when Viserys shows up unexpectedly in the throne room to adjudicate the succession of the Driftwood Throne and Driftmark.

When Lord Corlys Velaryon is wounded and looks to be on death’s doorstep, his brother Vaemond petitions the crown to name him heir to his family seat. His reasoning is simple: He believes that Lucerys Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s son, is not the son of Laenor Velaryon.

So the concerned parties all come to the Red Keep, where Alicent has been holding court in her husband’s stead. Rhaenyra argues that the matter has been decided and Corlys has chosen his grandson as heir. Vaemond disputes the legitimacy of the claim. Then, to the shock of everyone, Viserys shows up. Rhaenyra had visited him earlier and pleaded for his help, but he looked too feeble and decayed to move.

Still, he shows up and hobbles across the throne room. His Hand, Otto Hightower, looking completely taken aback, is forced to move aside as the king clambers up the stairs. At one point, as he makes the laborious climb, his crown falls from his head to the floor.

That’s when Daemon, his brother, moves to him, picking up his crown and helping him to the Iron Throne. He puts the crown gently upon his older brother’s head.

“When we were shooting that,” director Geeta Patel told Entertainment Weekly, “I think the rehearsal again, the first day — the crown fell off of Paddy’s head and Matt picked it up and we just kept going. We didn’t stop [filming].” It ended up sticking, and the director and actors both felt like it created a powerful moment in the two characters’ often-fraught relationship.

“There was a discovery there of this moment,” Patel said. “So then the three of us got together and they were like, ‘We felt this. This felt like the turning point in our relationship.'”

That turning point was largely a symbolic move by Daemon who at one point was heir to the Iron Throne. I don’t think he ever truly wanted it that badly, but he certainly wasn’t happy with his brother over myriad different slights.

Patel says the moment helps symbolize Daemon’s change of heart: “Because it proved to be, at least for me, quite a heavy moment and quite a turning point for a storyline that had started in the pilot: ‘Hey, I want your crown and by the end here I’m gonna put the crown back on your head and I’m gonna help you to your throne.'”

A speech by Daemon at the dinner later was cut both for time and because Patel says the really impactful, emotional improvised crown scene would have undermined its poignancy.

“Then when you got to the dinner, it was more of an aftermath moment. It was more about the dinner when Daemon gives that speech, there’s too many people in the room almost for that to be the emotional moment,” she said.

I certainly never would have guessed that this moment was improvised watching the scene. Like so much of this show, it’s steeped in symbolism and pulsing with unspoken meaning. It speaks to the quality of the whole project—its writing, its actors and its direction—that a scene this powerful was just a happy accident.

House Of The Dragon returns on Sunday. You can read my review of the latest episode right here.