Mid-way through season one of House of the Dragon, Ewan Mitchell’s villainous, one-eyed prince, Aemond Targaryen, enters the frame and changes everything – sending the franchise’s obsessed fanbase into utter frenzy.

Mitchell’s unnerving portrayal of the resolute yet complex Westeros bad boy sees the British actor weave his own story into Game of Thrones’ fabled lore, translating his hard-wired intensity and ambition to his anti-hero character through nuanced details (i.e. his walk inspired by 80s horror icons, and his fierce eyepatch stare).

Rising through the ranks alongside his co-star and fictional half-sister Emma D’Arcy (who portrays Rhaenyra Targaryen – also on a steadfast mission for power), this year sees the two actors return to their respective roles for House of the Dragon’s highly-anticipated second season as the civil war in Westeros rages on.

Emma D’Arcy: Where are you? Are you in America?
Ewan Mitchell: No, but I was recently doing a shoot in New York. Have you ever been? 

ED: Yeah. I did The Crucible there [at The Yard Theatre in 2019] and we got a Greyhound to Salem – they’re really into the occult there. What are you up to at the moment?
EM: I’m suffering severe jet lag from New York, but I loved it. I like the ambience, the people, the food. I love how everyone says, “I got ya.” What about you? 

ED: I’ve just done a week of rehearsals but I’ve had a nice bit of time not doing anything prior to that.
EM: The calm before the storm. 

ED: I’d be quite happy to do nothing for a really long time. I find it incredibly interesting to do almost nothing at all. I don’t know how much of a problem that’s going to be for my career going forward, but it’s been nice. [laughs]
EM: I have to stay busy when I’m not working. 

ED: Yeah but you’re young, I’ve crossed the boundary into a different type of life.
EM: No way. 

ED: I don’t mean it in a bad way either, it’s actually so crazy. For the first time ever I’m questioning, “What do I want my life to look like?” It’s not a question I had ever asked before – it’s cool. I think maybe it comes with a realisation that this is in fact your life.
EM: Oh wow, what age will it hit me? 

ED: How old are you?
EM: I’m 26. 

ED: You’ve probably got four or five years. [laughs]
EM: When I’m not working I do have to keep busy. I don’t know how it is for you, but I have to adopt a kind of sleeper agent lifestyle, I have to create a routine. I box every other day and keep my mind busy. I think my mates know I come with a disclaimer that if anything comes up, then I’m dropping everything for work – I just love it. 

“Everything I do always relates to acting.. it has to inform my process in some way, shape or form.”

ED: What you describe is a state of perpetually leaving.
EM: Everything I do always relates to acting weirdly, it has to inform my process in some way, shape or form and if it doesn’t, it switches me off. 

ED: What is your process?
EM: I never went to drama school so every job I do is an opportunity to hone it and try new things. Bruce Lee said, “Absorb what is useful and discard what is not,” he would cherry-pick from different combat disciplines and in doing so formed his own martial art. Similar to me, I’m trying it on the fly and seeing what sticks, what doesn’t, mixing it up for different characters. And so far, so good. What about you? 

ED: I also didn’t go to drama school and struggle when directors very kindly ask, “How can I best support your process?” I don’t feel particularly clear about what that means.
EM: So you’re quite instinctual? 

ED: I think I’m part completely pre-meditated and part not. I would say that I have a confidence problem so I do a lot of preparation, but for me preparation is confidence, which allows me to let go of the preparation on the day. Whereas, if I were to come in empty-handed, my confidence problem would flare up.
EM: I have to congratulate you on your short film The Talent [Emma co-produced and starred in the 2023 BIFA-nominated short], I loved it. 

“I like that separation between our two sides of the family because when we do meet again it’s going to be seismic.”

ED: Thank you, it was a joy.
EM: Was that the first thing you’ve produced? 

ED: Yeah, I co-produced it. I wouldn’t have managed it on my own.
EM: I’d love to do that one day, it’s so cool. 

ED: I’ve loved going to film festivals with it because it’s not something I’d done before, it’s such a nice process. Would you like to direct?
EM: I don’t know, maybe not yet. I still feel like I want to act. I look at what Margot Robbie has done with LuckyChap [Entertainment, Robbie’s production company] and how she’s produced films she’s really passionate about, films you think can change the industry in some way. I’d love to do that. Growing up, there were the films I really enjoyed, not the normal light entertainment ones, but that expanded my understanding and challenged me. Those films are the ones I want to be a part of in some way, shape or form. If not acting, I guess it would be producing. How long was the process from start to finish? 

ED: Probably around a year from the script not existing, but in a more structured way, maybe a pre-production of five months. I don’t really know why I asked you if you wanted to direct because everyone always says that and I feel like inherent in the question is that culturally, we privilege the idea of the primary artist. If you’re an interpretative secondary artist, we don’t credit that in quite the same way, but I don’t agree with that view. I don’t want to direct but really like producing and feel very confident in my secondary artist status.
EM: I feel like that with boxing, if I ever went into amateur there are a lot of other hungry up-and-coming boxers and it’s just not my game, I’m not as inspired by that as I am by acting. I don’t want to break my nose and get knocked out. 

ED: If you’re boxing a lot, how do you ensure that your nose doesn’t get broken?
EM: We keep it light and it’s usually just pads, if I have to wear a head guard I will do, but safety precautions are in place. [laughs] Do you box? 

ED: I don’t, but a friend of mine took part in a queer charity boxing event and I was surprised by how viscerally terrible I found it to watch them fight.
EM: Did you not want to get in there and join them? 

ED: I suddenly felt so wildly helpless and all I could do was scream from a place of wanting to protect and support but also from a place of fear. My friend did beautifully and they’re amazing, but I’d never been in that environment before and when it came to it I couldn’t handle it. How did you get into acting?
EM: I always wanted to do it but I’m not too sure where it came from. I heard about The Television Workshop in Nottingham and applied the first year but didn’t get in. For the second year, I had this little notebook that I would jot down in because I knew the structure of the process of the audition. I came up with all of these neat little quips I could use. I got in the second time, then from the workshop I did a short film called Fire directed by Chris Andrews. I got it burnt onto CDs and I got all the names of the agencies I knew of in London. I went down [to London] on the train and posted them to all of the agents. 

ED: Side note, are you unconscious yet? I’d say I’m still self-conscious in interviews.
EM: I always want to flip it on its head and ask the interviewer questions, just because of that innate fear that it might border into therapy and you might be Robin Williams and I’ll be Matt Damon sitting on a park bench in Boston somewhere and it’s Good Will Hunting. There’s something about mystery as well, and once you lose that mystery you can’t really get it back. If people get to know the real me, I do believe it’ll detract from what I’m trying to do as an actor. I want you to escape into my characters, I don’t want you to see Ewan. How are you with interviews? I’m super grateful you’ve done this. 

ED: I’ve got better, I don’t mean better as a quality judgement, but I have become more comfortable. I was very bad at the beginning, I had this ‘good schoolboy’ who came out and actually, he completely wiped my personality. He feels that it’s a test and there is a right answer. I have to banish my good boy otherwise I am violently dull.
EM: And that’s me right now, right? [both laugh] 

ED: Ewan, get on the chaise longue, we’re going to talk. [both laugh] It is frightening at the beginning; I don’t know how you feel but I’m only just at a point now since the show came out that I feel OK.
EM: Really? Did you not feel yourself getting warmed up the more you were doing that massive press run for season one? 

ED: No. [laughs] I think my good boy came out, but you can’t predict the parameters of a change like that in your life until it happens and you’ve sat in it for a while. I found it quite frightening [at first].
EM: You’re working with Ben Whishaw at the moment right? 

ED: Yeah.
EM: I read that when he’s off stage he has that anxiety too, watching his work you’d never even think of it. In Passages he’s amazing and even in the smaller supporting characters too. He just kills it in anything he does. I found it interesting because you don’t see [anxiety] in his performances, which is inspiring. I did a Comic Con in Brazil and it was super fun but at the same time, I had to be someone else. I had this leather suit on and it was so empowering. I felt unstoppable and in the end I adopted this confident character. I recognise I need to be more myself in these situations, for sure. 

ED: I honestly don’t know if that’s true, it depends on what you want to give away.
EM: I haven’t seen you at all while shooting season two. 

ED: How did this season feel?
EM: I loved it. I like that separation between our two sides of the family because when we do meet again it’s going to be seismic. The first season it was great to finally see that crescendo and now season two is the fallout. I really can’t wait for your performance, it’s quite nice not knowing what’s going on. 

ED: I agree, and it’s nice having so much to watch that you haven’t seen. I have a whole half of the show that I know nothing about. Do you watch yourself?
EM: I do, it takes a good twelve or thirteen times before I can appreciate it. I find it really difficult but I also recognise that I want to know what works and what doesn’t. Do you? 

ED: Yes, but quite minimally. Do you watch playback on set?
EM: I can’t look at myself, do you? 

ED: No, but I genuinely think it would be helpful if I could stomach it. So much on screen is so technical and because so many factors mediate your performance, it’s reasonable that things might not communicate as you’re imagining. But then I don’t know whether that would be a degree of control that is just not real because we have so little control and fundamentally the narrative will be in the edit.
EM: What is it like working with Matt [Smith]? 

ED: It’s great, I love him an extraordinary amount and feel privileged when I get to work with him. It’s so nice to know what lights someone up, he’s so reactive and he responds beautifully to newness, it’s such a delightful game.
EM: I remember that moment in season one episode eight around the banquet table and Aemond [Ewan’s character in House of the Dragon] and Daemon [Matt Smith’s character in House of the Dragon] have a face-off, and in one of the takes Matt spoke in a murmur but it was High Valyrian. I did notice that quality in the limited times I worked with him. There is something spicy about mixing it up, keeping you on your toes and in turn, you pick up a few moves in the process. 

ED: It’s really good. The guy’s got great taste as well, sometimes he has lovely ideas about how a thing might play best and at what size. I get the sense he has a really vivid picture in his mind’s eye and that’s so helpful because it refers to the technical part of our job. It’s a privilege to be ‘lost in the character’ but there is a specific technical part of how something communicates and I think he is really good at that.
EM: That’s so interesting. I do try to take that into consideration with frame sizes and what to play up and play down. It’s all a big learning curve, isn’t it?

Interview originally published in The HERO Summer Zine 8 – out now.