02x02 - Rhaenyra the Cruel

[bunniefuu]

♪♪

This is an epic scene.

Jim Clay is a mad man
of all the best kinds.

Oh, I couldn't wait, to be fair.

♪♪

She's badass.
Why wouldn't you
have a crossbow?

-It was a funeral.
-[laughter]

But I had so much fun.

That's a shot.

I just had the best
seats in the house.

[epic music playing]

[light, tense music playing]

Clare Kilner:
I wanted to make the opening
of the episode chaotic

and unfair and violent.

Because I felt everyone
was blinded by the rage.

I also wanted to intercut it
with Aegon smashing up

Viserys's model
of Old Valyria.

♪♪

We shot a lot of that
model in season one.

crew member:
And action.

The Lady Alicent Hightower,
Your Grace.

Alejandro Martínez:
It was a beautiful, huge model

that took half
of the king's apartment.

It's truly wondrous
what you've built.

Martínez:
But it was so nice
and so beautiful

that it was just
big part of the room,

so we got to destroy it...

and it was really fun.

The good news is, they made
a stunt version that was

specifically for smashing,
so the,

the beautiful Valyrian
model is still intact.

Kilner:
The incredible props people

made these, like,
3D-printed extra ones

that would look real
when we smashed,

and that we could have
the sort of powder of it
into the air.

Katie Lodge:
Has to be made out
of really light material.

And that's, obviously,
when our mold team

and, um, all their knowledge
come into play there

and they give us--
and they do a few tests

and we do some smashes,
and we just make sure that

we've got the look
that they want.

Kilner:
The actual 3D models
are really expensive,

so we couldn't have
many shots of it.

So I said,
"Okay, Tom, you know,
let's do this in one."

crew member:
Action!

[yells]
I'll k*ll them!

Tom Glynn-Carney:
I had extreme pangs
of guilt doing that

because I, I was aware
how much work

goes into a piece like that.

Um, but I guess they made
those pieces with the knowledge

that they were gonna
be smashed to bits.

[yells]
I'll k*ll them all!

I-I think that is exactly what
was needed for us to see

where Aegon's energy
was goin', you know?

He didn't have
anywhere to put it,

and he had people around him
tellin' him to make decisions

and be pragmatic.

And it's okay.
It'll get better over time.

No, it f*ck' won't.
I need to smash the crap
outta this, ya know?

Sorry for swearing.
[chuckles]

[grunting]

-[indistinct chatter]
-speaker: Alright, brilliant.

♪♪

[somber music playing]

[bell tolling]

The funeral,
it was very exciting
to get that set piece.

-[singers vocalizing]
-[bell tolling]

I sort of looked into,
you know, "The Godfather"

and all those great movies
who have these incredible
funeral scenes.

And I also-- it also made me
think very much about,

um, Princess Di's funeral
and how slow the cortège was.

And it made me think
about Alicent and Helaena

being forced to be
public fodder in their grief.

♪♪

We always saw it
as an opportunity
to open the episode,

go outside,
see King's Landing,
see Flea Bottom.

And we wanted the funeral
to become about the queen,

about what she's feeling
about being exposed that way.

So it had to be scope-y,

but it had to be
very intimate.

Welcome to Cáceres.

To sh**t season two
of "House of the Dragon"

in Spain has been amazing.

Ryan Condal:
Spain is always great.

You know, we went back
to Cáceres and Trujillo

to cover off, essentially,
King's Landing

and its immediate surrounds.

Sara Hess: Locations give
a real sense of just

scope and scale
and then bigness.

There's a fullness to our world

that you couldn't get
just on set.

Cáceres, where we filmed,
was so beautiful,

and the people were
so wonderful and kind
and welcomin'.

Martínez: Spain was the place
where we shot season one.

So, it was kinda
like going back home.

We know
the nooks and crooks.

We, we know where
to place the lights.

Kilner: You know,
you're hit by this big skies,

bright sunshine,
this warm, glowing light.

And this beautiful,
old stonework.

And that just influences you.
You can't help it.

Olivia Cooke:
It sort of does all
the acting for you

being in environments
like that.

You don't really
have to pretend.

Welcome to King's Landing.

♪♪

Kilner:
The incredible team of people

who put this funeral
scene together,

from the building
of the carriage

and the incredible,
beautiful horses

and how
well-behaved they are.

The armor that they
are covered in.

It's just, like-- took
my breath away when I saw it.

It's absolutely beautiful.

Then, the design
of the costumes.

I loved the veils
because I shot

all of the funeral
at 40 frames per second,

so we could choose which bits
we'd use in slow-mo or not.

And so,
those veils in slow-mo
are absolutely stunning.

And then, I also wanted
to sort of fill the air.

So they're throwing hops.

So when we have
these slow-mo moments,

we've got all these
pieces slowly falling
through the air.

And there's a sort of
sad beauty to that.

And then,
prosthetics with Jaehaerys,

little body of Jaehaerys.

♪♪

So, Jaehaerys was
our first, uh, first scan.

So, we had him
laid on the table.

We did a full-body scan.

We had a very good
3D, uh, cleanup person

who made a, an absolutely
beautiful copy of his body,

which we then had,
um, milled out

by an outside company,

molded and turned
into a, a silicone body.

Once he was a silicone body,
we just had to,

[chuckles] we just had
to take his head off

and decide how
to stitch it back on.

So, we went through
a few different versions

of, um, sort of medieval
stitch reference

and these kind of metal loops

that we had to sort of
pin the neck together.

We're supposed to see
that the head's very
obviously stitched on

because, uh, the Greens
want to demonstrate

how barbaric
Rhaenyra has been.

-Behold the works
of Rhaenyra Targaryen!
-[drumming]

♪♪

-Defiler of the innocent!
-[smallfolk chattering]

I saw how we could intercut
the funeral pieces

with Aegon
bludgeoning Blood.

And I started thinking about
a drum and the beat of the drum,

and then matching the drumbeat
to the use of the mace.

♪♪

So I asked for us
to have a drummer

at the beginning
of the procession,

so that we could
use this drumbeat

to sort of increase
and sort of get inside
Helaena's head,

which is part of the building
up of her panic attack.

smallfolk:
A curse on Rhaenyra,
the monstrous!

[smallfolk shouting]

Filming with Phia
and seein'...

just, yeah, her,
her grief come to life,

it was,
it was really hard.

It was really beautiful
and really movin'.

[laughs] Then she--

Then we, then we broke
and she, like, wiped the tear

and she was like,
"I really felt like you
were my mummy then."

I was like,
"Oh, good. Great!"

[indistinct chatter, laughter]

It was a funeral,
but I had so much fun.

It was so fun.
I mean, me and Phia
get on really well,

so, like, in between takes,
you know, very sad, very sad,

but, like, [laughs]
singin', singin', ya know,

show tunes, doin' whatever.

You know, it was quite nice
to sit down and be, like,

driven around
by horse and cart.

Condal: Oh, it's so
beautifully filmed.

All the layers of texture,
Phia and Olivia's performance.

And I'm thrilled
with the outcome of it.

♪♪

Nick Heckstall-Smith:
The hanging of the ratcatchers
was fun...

in a morbid kinda way.

It takes a village, really,
to create a scene like that.

We wanted a mixture
of prosthetic, fake bodies

and real-life people
hanging there.

Tom Bennett:
The bodies are incredible.

Like, I knew it was 50/50,

but you've gotta
get really close.

I knew one of them
was a stuntman

when he got hoicked up
and started laughing.

He gave that,
he shouldn't have done
that on camera.

Very unprofessional.

-How does that feel, sir?
-It's really nice.

-Really nice.
-[laughter]

♪♪

-[indistinct chatter]
-[laughter]

Rowley and his team
had to work out these
pulley systems

where people could look
like they're hanging.

Rowley Irlam:
We made a metal frame
that goes over the shoulders.

From these shoulders,
we have cables that go down,
past the hips,

and we had stirrups
that went underneath the feet.

So, basically, for all
intents and purposes,

you're standing in your harness,
not hanging in your harness.

It just means
you can hang there
almost indefinitely.

Now, we can push down
on these legs.

When you're liftin' here,

so this, this--
the energy goes from here

all the way down the straps

down to the stirrups
at the bottom.

It's like standing up
in the air,

but we're actually not standing.

It's quite comfortable.

The other thing
we did as well

was we concealed
the wire within rope,

and it looks like the rope's
just hanging on the davits,

but we put pulleys inside,
to a system,

so we can literally
lift people up and down

really quickly, really easily.

I think the first thing
we did was looking for people
that we could lifecast.

So, we would have people
in our scanning tent.

We'd have to physically have
a noose around their neck

and pull it up, so we'd get all
the creasing and wrinkling,

which most people
were up for.

Um, I think
nobody complained.

Jamie's one of our ratcatchers.

So, you can see where
the rope... went around there.

And Jamie just gave us
a nice dead expression.

-[indistinct].
-[laughs]

And, Danny--
We've kept these
because I think

we're probably gonna have
to let Danny have this.

Danny Gulliver:
It is an honor to be
used on a show

of this level and scale,

and also to see
the intricate detail

and work that the prosthetic
team have put into

all of those ratcatchers.

There's a lot of processes
involved just to get, you know,
the scan done.

Then we mold that
and we get a plaster one
that we tighten up,

mold that into a silicone,

and then paint it,
do all the hair work.

And then we've gotta
put 'em onto a body.

So, yeah,
it's fairly convoluted.

It was great, actually,
just seeing them all,

all hanging there, finally,

kinda finally take it in,
you know?

You're like, oh, that looks,
that's quite cool.

-Well done.
-[chatter]

♪♪

Jim Clay is a mad man
of all the best kinds.

He outdid himself
with Dragonstone,

and we've expanded
Dragonstone quite a bit.

Ryan had said that
Dragonstone going to feature,

this was very early
in the writing process,

so we decided to allocate

the big stage
to build the set on.

Essentially, in season one
with Dragonstone,

the main area we see
is the Painted Table Room.

Dominic Masters:
That room came originally
from "Game of Thrones"

but we felt it was time
to expand that world

into a bigger environment.

We wanted it
to be one complete set

with these different rooms
all interconnected.

It extended from
the hall of the Painted Table

into, again,
a composite world,

which is the corridors,
Rhaenyra's bed chambers,
the library set.

So, you have a set that
is essentially a collection
of many other mini sets,

so you can walk
from one room to another

and make the audience feel
like you're in a real castle.

It's crazy 'cause you can
walk all the way down

and it's fantastic.

Kieran Belshaw:
Rhaenyra's a very
important character

so we wanted a room
that sort of really echoed

the uniqueness
of her character.

Jim really liked these
sort of more cathedral-like,

sort of tall windows,

and it's got an interesting
sort of asymmetrical shape

that just gives it
this interesting kind of quirk.

Jim Clay: What we wanted
to provide for Rhaenyra

is a sense of the history
behind her and her family,

and the history
of Dragonstone.

So that big sculpture
in her room,

it's a temple to the history
that's gone before.

It's like the engravings
in Egyptian architecture.

[crew chatter]

Clay:
The brief of the library set

was it was an enormous
scrolls library

containing all
of the Valyrian history,

essentially in
the form of scrolls.

We were just trying
to figure out a way
to do that shelving,

so we came up
with the, the diamond idea,

and that continued
as a theme through that room.

And then Claire dressed it
with many layers then

of other artifacts and element
of Valyrian history.

That was phenomenal to do
that set and combining marble,

really beautiful
textures of marble

that has the oranges
running through it,

which I took from doing
the Painted Table

because of those
rich colors and tones
of heat, light, fire.

♪♪

Emma D'Arcy:
For every book
and document and scroll

operates hours of work,

um, that have been put
into these objects.

You have ravens with messages,
full messages written on them.

You have full family trees
and it's all been handmade.

It's all thought through,
every little bit of it,

every piece,
every color, every texture,

every small item
is thought about.

The detail and the craftsmanship
that goes into these places,

it's just-- it's just amazing.

It didn't take any imagination

to put yourself
where you need to be.

♪♪

[yells]
Brother!

The Erryk and Arryk duel
is a, is a giant moment
in Westerosi history.

Brother against brother.

This is an epic scene
because, you know,

the actors, Luke and Elliott,
are brothers, are twins,

and they love
each other deeply.

So much of our action
in the show is dragon-based.

It’s fun to see, uh, two knights
go at it, sword against sword.

Martínez: That was
the first conversation
we had when we arrived.

We sat down, we said,
"Okay, let's talk about
the twins."

And we started thinking
about ways of sh**ting it,

how the fight
should look like.

Rowley then did extensive
rehearsals and blocking
with his team,

which would then be filmed
and presented to Clare.

That would be tweaked,

and then Rowley introduced
the twins into that.

Those guys performed
that entire scene themselves.

They trained for it,
they learned it.

They got themselves
in shape for it.

Oh, I couldn't wait,
to be fair.

Me and El have got
martial art backgrounds

and we're quite active,
physical lads,

so the activeness of it

and throwin' ourselves into it
was never a worry really.

It was just making sure
that we'd learned the dance

to really
throw ourselves at it

with the energy
it needed.

Really, it was just about
gettin' it as tight and as clean
as we could,

and then, just comin'
on to set on the day
and just smashing it out.

Fortunately,
we didn't lose any fingers

[laughs]
so we did do that right.

We knew from season one,
um, how hard,

um, Elliott and Luke
would work.

And the only thing
I wouldn't let 'em do

was actually just
to smash into the pot.

Everything else they did.

Eddie, the stunt guy,
bless him, like,

he clamored this pot
so hard, smashed it.

And rather Eddie than me.
He's earned his money today,
that's for sure anyway.

[crew applauding]

♪♪

crew member:
Marker.

We all agreed there should be
a moment in the fight

where you don't know
who's Arryk and who's Erryk.

You really get confused.

Irlam: So, even with
the choreography,

if you watch it
really carefully,

you'll see that they each
get wounded the same.

It's just so that
if anyone was to piece--
go through it

at any one moment and go,
"Right, well, I kn--
I know he's Erryk

because his leg was cut here
or his arm was cut here,"

it won't work because,
during the fight,

they both end up
with the same injuries.

Although, we don't telegraph
that's what we're doing.

-[jiggles doorknob]
-[grunting]

Which?!
Which is Erryk?!

Martínez:
That was the whole point.
That, that kinda what gives it

emotion that you become
really neutral about it.

And it-- It, it--
The fight becomes about them.

It's about the fifth time,
at least, it's been

-mixed up today on set.
-On camera as well.

Just keepin' everybody
on their toes.

[interviewer speaking]

Who's the better?
I suppose it's debatable,

but I think Elliott
would probably say him

because I hit him a couple
of times with the sword.

Think I did catch him once,
so I've gotta say

that he's probably better.

If I could tell them apart
when they're in their armor,

I might have half
a chance of telling you,

but the actual truth
of the matter is

they're pretty,
pretty evenly matched.

D'Arcy:
Luke and Elliott are amazing.

They are so amazing.

That's what I spent the two days
saying to anyone who'd listen.

Not only have they done
a beautiful job of Rowley's
choreography,

but the emotion
that they filled it with

was such a privilege to watch.

-We were born together.
-You parted us!

I still love you, brother.

Seeing the divide between them
and seeing the humanity

that they both bring
to those, to those roles,

I think it really lands
in a absolutely brutal way.

It's another
awe-inspiring moment
directed by Clare.

Luke Tittensor:
Clare is such
a beautiful spirit.

Before we did that scene,

Clare comes up to us
and she's like,

I've called the scene
"Searching for Love."

And I just thought
that was such a sweet thing

because that
kind of emotional,

personal side
of it was so important,

so outside of the-the fight,
we were gonna capture

the right emotion that needed
to be captured.

These guys were training
from day one in this fight

and I, you know, I thought,
what can I bring to this,

you know, in terms of looking
at it in an interesting way.

So, throughout
the whole scene,

I was looking to find
moments of connection

between these two guys.

So, you know, whilst
they're striking each other

and their eyes meet,

like, what are the questions?

What are they
saying to each other,

and it--
why is it so hard?

It's because they love
each other so deeply.

So, for me, this was
a story about brotherly love

like no other.

♪♪

[music fades out]