Kieran Bew knows the power of a good beard. He credits Hugh Hammer’s success in taming the giant Vermithor to the look of his beard. Dragon’s HouseThe seventh episode of this season, “The Red Sowing.”
“I had a big beard, and everyone was talking about whether I should shave it off or not,” says Bew. “And I just said, I really like the design of Vermithor’s teeth. It’s like they’re going in all directions. It’s like if he bites you, it’s going to be the most painful. It’s like he’s stuck in Iron Maiden. And I thought it was a bit of a funny joke about how people who have dogs end up looking like dogs.”
Bew knew that Hugh’s entire season arc was building up to a showdown with Vermithor, and he knew how many aesthetic choices were being made to establish the depth of his decision to go to Dragonstone. He kept his beard, his hair was the same color as the Daemon (unless it was Viserys), and he mixed in a bit of Bew’s own natural shade. And as he watched Hugh vacillate with the ruling class of King’s Landing, Bew found a role in little bits like beating up a commoner for a bag of food because he was so desperate for it.
For him, those scenes were “always like a skeleton” for a larger character arc, but like all great actors (or interpreters of many), Fire and bloodAs a historian who writes textbook-like narratives, his mission was to carve out the humanity that lived in between.
“My character is given a scene where he reveals something so profound to his wife (…) and he’s fighting to go on a suicide mission,” Bew marvels. “That’s why he decided to keep it a secret. Because of the shame, because of the way[his mother]behaved, because of the way he was raised, because of how painful it was.
“He’s been trying to do something different. And now he’s saying: Actually, this is all I can do. It hurts so much. I have to do something. I have to do this..”
So Bew put all his energy into the final scene of Episode 7, where Rhaenyra’s plan to find Vermithor as a rider goes awry. To him, Hugh’s desperation is to do something, problem — He was still scared at the moment, but he was on the verge of suicide. “He’s come this far, and the stakes are so high that he thinks the dice are slightly in his favor. But it’s still freaking scary,” Bew said. “How do you strategize against something that can move that fast and crush you and set people on fire and knock them off their heads?”
Of course, his delay had some merit. “One thing that (it) is going to break is: The odds are better.”
For inspiration on how Hugh and Bronze Fury should feel in their ultimate moment of connection, Beu recalled his time on set, specifically the moment before the CG shot when he approached the crew’s little Yorkshire terrier, who kept staring at Vermitor’s tennis ball eyes.
“It has to be that moment of assertion, that moment where this dog likes me, that moment where this dog connects with me,” Bew says, acknowledging the difference between a small terrier and a four-story dragon. “It’s a delicate connection. But before you get there, it’s overwhelming. And scary. And you have to throw everything out there.”
And in Bew’s opinion, everything about the way Hugh claims Vermithor comes from that desperation. Unlike other dragons, Vermithor is looking for a rider who can match his proverbial eccentricity. So it’s no wonder Hugh’s aggressive approach appeals to the powerful dragon. It makes absolutely no sense for Hugh to claim Vermithor in the way he does so altruistically. He even intervenes when the dragon targets another Targaryen bastard. After all, nothing turns the impossible into a race like the fear of failure.
“He was thrown into this situation, growing up in the shadow of the aristocracy, being rejected by a family he didn’t belong to, not only was he not part of that family, he was connected to that family in a way that was full of shame, and he was angry about that,” Bew said.What will happen to me if Vermitor chooses her?“
