House of the Dragon’s newest star talks about ‘flipping the switch’ in the latest episode
House of the Dragon plays, as is well known, by the rules of the game of thrones: you win or you die. Those caught in this power struggle know that the odds are stacked against even the most winning hand. And so we get all sorts of leaders, though usually blond — virtuous or cruel, thoughtful or thoughtless, Green or Black. And yet few have been as great as Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes), who, even at his young age, outshone Daemon Targaryen in their final confrontation. It is the kind of leadership that House of the Dragon doesn’t often specialize, at least not in such a delightfully virtuous way: understated, quiet self-confidence.
“I wanted to play that scene as subtly as possible,” Barnes says of filming the confrontation between him and Daemon. “He has to be confident — he’s standing up for all of his rivermen. He’s taken on the role of a gentleman now. And I think he knows and understands that he can’t be this little boy anymore, as young as he is. He has to step up and take this role, and take action.”
It’s simple on the surface; in his first foray into balancing power and responsibility, Oscar Tully masterfully sets up, challenges, and forces Daemon into action. But even for a Game of Thrones character, the glow is quite drastic.
It’s hard to find anything that even comes close to ‘justice’ when it comes to House of the Dragon worried, let alone leaders who feel calm. The show is much more concerned with leaders who feel human than leaders who feel honest. Rhaenyra is as close as Dragon comes, and even she is, more often than not, nervous and unsure of herself. This is by design; she is a queen who is dispossessed, but who was also not ready for this level of conflict so early. And yet Oscar Tully was in a similar boat, as Barnes notes — and the young actor was able to find his own entrance into the way of thinking.
“This is the first time I’ve played a role where I wasn’t just a scared little boy,” Barnes said, describing a handful of previous roles — such as a scared child whose father was murdered in The Batsman — as a host of “little, vulnerable, innocent” children. “I didn’t really compare Oscar to any other characters or actors that I know, because I couldn’t really think of anyone comparable.”
And it is true; even among the broader Game of Thrones And House of the Dragon Specimens , Oscar’s entanglement of Daemon in the scene packs a punch. On the one hand, it’s delicious to see him get the better of a bully like Daemon Targaryen, who’s been acting awful while wrestling with his own demons. On the other hand, the bloodlust—even if it’s born out of a sense of justice—feels representative of how all power on this show compromises you, even when it doesn’t corrupt. And it’s Barnes who had to play the moment with solidity and weight, even though his character has been soft and malleable up until this point.
Donning Oscar’s armor — with all its Tully scales and sheer heft — certainly helped him get into the role, but ultimately the transition had to come from him. And so Barnes, with no obvious analogs to compare it to, did just that. “We talked about it and talked about how Oscar Tully, over time, understands what he needs to do and how he needs to take action on his own, and he flips the switch from that vulnerable little boy to that kind of powerful figure.”