Paddy Considine is a tiny bit jealous he doesn’t get to be in House of the Dragon season 2

The first season of House of the Dragon aired on HBO last year, and while it’s too early to call it the equal of Game of Thrones just yet, the prequel series made a strong case for itself.

A lot of that had to do with Paddy Considine’s performance as King Viserys I Targaryen, a conflicted monarch we watch waste away over the course of the first season, before he finally dies in Episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides.” Speaking to Variety, Considine talked about being offered this character and bringing him to life. “I loved his virtues,” he said. “In that world where everybody’s fighting over this seat, he was somebody who wasn’t corrupted by it. I thought this will work if I can make him human.”

Considine knew from the start that Viserys would not live through the whole season. “That was the first tiny bit of disappointment,” he said. “But then I saw the character arc and his demise, and I thought he was a gift. Sometimes things just come to you at the right moments. I feel like I was ready for him. A couple of years earlier, I wouldn’t have played him so well, bizarrely. But I’ve done a big theater run in the West End and New York. Because I wasn’t trained in acting, I felt like, somehow, I finally done my school and learned something about the craft.”

Viserys Targaryen accepted his disease as punishment

The first season of House of the Dragon featured a lot of powerful performances, but Considine’s work stood out. He found a way into the character, starting with his foundational moment: when he decides to save the life of his unborn son, which requires him to give the order to give his beloved wife Aemma a crude medieval caesarian section, which will kill her.

“You know, people misunderstood and thought that he’d decided to kill his wife. But that wasn’t the case,” Considine said. “She and the baby were both going to die, no matter what, but we could possibly save the child if we perform this procedure, which just turned into butchery.”

That’s the guilt that Viserys has carried with him. How she met her end was something that haunted him for the rest of his life. When he started to become sick early on, it was almost a manifestation of the guilt that he felt over Aemma’s death. So he just allowed himself to get sicker and sicker. He never asked for a cure. He never asked for help. Viserys almost accepted his fate, really, as punishment.

How playing Viserys Targaryen allowed Paddy Considine to connect with his parents

As the season progressed, Viserys’ disease got worse and worse, until in his final episode he looked like a walking skeleton. First someone suggested “the idea that he’d lost an eye. Then the idea that his cheek had rotted. And then he wears this mask. To me it was just like, yeah, give me it all,” Considine said. “There was something about playing somebody sympathetic and beautiful who’s still trying to hold on to their dignity, but they also very disfigured by it all.”

In portraying a dying man, Considine was able to draw on his real-world experience with his parents. “My father died of cancer, and that slow decline, with that weight loss, it’s just an awful thing to see.”

My mom ended up blind and lost both of her legs to diabetes. She very much had those qualities that Viserys had, too. She tried to remain dignified, but there was a part of her that had just given up on herself. That was a difficult thing as a son to watch. Also, my wife and daughter watched Episode 8 when it aired in the U.K. I was in another room because I didn’t want to see it. My wife says, “You’ve done the work. You need to see it,” and she showed me the episode. The end, when he lies in the bed, it was very shocking to me, because I looked the image of my dad when he was dying of cancer. The image of him.

In a way, playing Viserys in this state allowed Considine to understand his parents better. “As the character developed, it did allow me to access that. I wondered, was it a catharsis? I’m not sure if it even is now. I don’t know how I feel about it now. But I was definitely playing both of them at times, just because I’d experienced it, if that makes sense.”

Considine also has teenage daughters, which helped him to understand Viserys’ relationship with his daughter Rhaenyra; he named the scene where Viserys reveals the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy to Rhaenyra as one of his favorites. And he knows that families keep secrets. “The situation with Rhaenyra and her children, he was very alive to that,” Considine said. “That’s how I always played it. But it’s like any family that has these kinds of secrets: I was determined that it wouldn’t get out and I wouldn’t allow people to talk about it.”

Paddy Considine knew House of the Dragon was going to be good

What else is there to say accept that Considine knocked this character out of the park? He hasn’t gotten much love from award shows as of yet, but I hope he gets an Emmy nomination (and win) cause he deserves it.

“I just had a sense that [the show] was going to be good. I just did,” Considine remembered. “You know, Matt [Smith] said to me one day, and it wasn’t in a derogatory way: ‘You really mean this, don’t you?’ Yeah, of course. That’s why I’m here. I wasn’t just there doing a gig. But very early on, I said to myself, ‘If this show fails, it’s not my problem. I’m not taking that on.’ So I never felt pressure in that way. I just felt a sense of responsibility to that character.”

Considine won’t return for the second season of House of the Dragon, which is due to air next year. “When Series 2 comes around, I wish my comrades well, but there’s a hint of jealousy in there. Because I’m like, ‘Ah, I don’t get to live it again,’” he said. “But at least I got to tell a full story. He had a beginning and he had an end. And the end was pretty spectacular.”