House of the Dragon star Kieran Bew wanted to look like his dragon
Kieran Bew knows the power of good facial hair. He credits Hugh Hammer’s success in taming the enormous Vermithor to his look. House of the Dragon‘s seventh episode of the season, “The Red Sowing.”
“I had a big beard and everyone was talking about whether I should shave it off or not,” Bew says. “And I just said, I love the design of Vermithor’s teeth, they look like they’re going in all directions; like if he were to bite you, it would be really painful, almost like being stuck in an Iron Maiden or something. And I thought it was a bit of a funny joke about people who have dogs, who look like their dogs.”
Bew was aware that Hugh’s entire seasonal arc was leading up to his confrontation with Vermithor, and knew how many aesthetic choices went into determining the depth of the decision to go to Dragonstone: he kept the beard and hair the same color as Daemon’s (or Viserys’s), with a bit of Bew’s own natural hue mixed in with his own. And as he watched Hugh’s agitation with King’s Landing’s ruling class grow, Bew found the role in small beats, like being so desperate for food that he punches a commoner to get a bag.
For him, the scenes were “always like a skeleton” for the larger character arc. But as any good actor (or, as is the case when portraying many Fire & Blood‘s textbook-like account, historian), it was his task to reconstruct the lived humanity in between.
“To have a scene where my character reveals something huge to his wife … and he argues that he has to go on a suicide mission,” Bew marvels. “That’s how much he decided to keep that secret. Because of shame, because of how (his mother) behaved, because of his upbringing, because of how painful it was.
“He tried to do something different. And now he says: Actually this is all I can do. I’m in so much pain; I have to do something, I have to do this.”
And so Bew put all that energy into that final scene of episode 7, where Rhaenyra’s plans to find Vermithor a rider go awry. For him, Hugh’s desperation—to do something, to matter — was almost suicidal, though he’s still scared at the time. “He’s come all this way, the stakes are so high, he thinks the dice are slightly stacked in his favor. But it’s still fucking scary,” Bew says. “How do you strategize against something that can move so fast and crush you and drop people on your head in flames?”
Of course, his delay had an upside. “The only thing about going to hell is: the odds get better.”
To get inspiration for how the ultimate moment of connection between Hugh and the Bronze Fury should feel, Bew drew from his time on set, particularly when he approached a crew member’s small Yorkshire terrier on set, who kept trying to catch Vermithor’s tennis ball eyes before he played in CG.
“The moment I claim it, it has to be this, where this dog likes me, this dog connects with me,” Bew says, acknowledging that there’s a difference between a tiny terrier and a dragon the size of four houses. “It’s a connection that’s, like, so delicate. But before we get there, it’s overwhelming. And it’s terrifying. And it requires us to throw everything at it.”
And in Bew’s mind, everything about the way Hugh claims Vermithor comes from that desperation. Unlike other dragons, Vermithor is looking for a rider who, as the saying goes, match his freak. It’s no surprise then that Hugh’s aggressive approach appealed to the mighty dragon, since there’s nothing about the way Hugh Vermithor claims that’s selfless in that regard—not even when he intervenes as the dragon attacks another Targaryen bastard. After all, there’s nothing like the fear of failure to turn the impossible into a race.
“He’s forced into this. Something about growing up in the shadow of the aristocracy, the family that he’s rejected by and not part of — not only is he not part of it, he’s connected to it in a way that’s full of shame, that he’s angry about,” Bew says.If Vermithor chooses her, what happens to me?“