Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith on keeping ‘HOTD’ roles alive and unpredictable
MANILA, Philippines — Now in their third season inside the world of “House of the Dragon,” Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith may know their characters, Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen, better than ever. But the work remains exciting for these English actors because their roles still feel unpredictable.
To fans of the HBO Original drama, this royal couple’s story arc is part political battle, part family drama and part complicated love story.
And by Season 3, Rhaenyra and Daemon are now at the center of a more dangerous chapter, with the fight for the Iron Throne by these members of the ruling Targaryen family now escalating into a deadly civil war.
One thing that Matt learned from playing the volatile and battle-hardened Daemon for several years now is that familiarity should never mean predictability.
Still, keeping a character fresh over several seasons is not easy.
“I think as an actor, all I’m searching for is surprise, really, from one moment to the next, even to myself,” he said during a virtual roundtable interview for the series with international press, including The STAR.
“So you want the character to do it, I think, or you want it to exist in a space that feels surprising to everyone, I think, really.
“I’ve always maintained that it’s very difficult. If you look at a lot of shows and actors at this stage in a show, you know, it takes real skill to keep it — keep it alive,” he added.
As for Emma, returning to the same character has proven to be a new and fulfilling experience.
“House of the Dragon” marks the actor’s first recurring role, and the longer journey also means understanding Rhaenyra more deeply.
Emma said, “Obviously, this is the first recurring role I’ve ever played, and I have actually found that to be a real, like, joy, because the sort of operating system of the character becomes more and more refined and more and more reliable, actually.”
For the actor, the surprise comes from putting Rhaenyra through new events and seeing how the character responds.
“And I think for me the surprise is in then just sort of running events through that operating system and getting outcomes and behaviors that I didn’t necessarily plan.
“And that from, like, an acting perspective and just from a sort of actor’s experience perspective, I find it to be a very kind of exciting part of the job.”
That same sense of surprise also shapes how Matt and Emma work together as scene partners.
Asked what they had learned from each other after years of playing Daemon and Rhaenyra, Emma began, “I have learned so much from Matt over the course of five years,” praising Matt’s ability to keep scenes loose and alive even within the demands of a major TV production.
“Matt has a really extraordinary ability to find freedom within the quite… what can be quite a restrictive environment,” Emma said.
“There is a lot to filmmaking that kind of is at odds with the freedom that one necessarily needs to find, as an actor, to keep things both sort of alive and unexpected and volatile.
“And I would say the way in which you create that space for yourself is kind of masterful, because I know that surprise is a kind of crucial part of your process and it’s like a need, but you are also able to do it without compromising anybody else’s work or any other department sort of space,” Emma told Matt.
Matt returned the compliment, saying he had also learned “so much in life and art” from Emma.
He described his co-star’s process as highly detailed and well-thought through before the cameras roll.
“I think there’s a sort of a forensic sort of early period that goes into the work that then when you’re on set, there’s almost a sort of, like, writer director’s level of detail over what is, like, required for the beat of the story or the shape of the scene and where it should lead kind of dramatically,” Matt said.
He compared Emma’s command of the role to watching a world-class athlete at work.
“It’s like watching Novak Djokovic or Federer, you know, at Wimbledon, hit the ball back to each other,” he said.
“It’s like, you know, Emma’s Roger Federer, basically.”
Matt added that Emma has “real quick emotional access to the truth and the story.”
“And it’s a gift,” he stressed.
Their off-screen trust matters because the relationship between Daemon and Rhaenyra remains one of the most charged and most complicated parts of “House of the Dragon.”
Asked if there is still love between the characters at this point in the story, Matt said, speaking for his character: “I do, I do, yes, I do, I do.”
“I think there’s a really interesting type of love between them,” he continued, adding, “I’d say there’s quite a fever, you know, sort of energy to that love.”
Emma said Season 3 lets the show explore that dynamic, especially as both characters begin the season with confidence and energy.
“They are both in a place of kind of confidence and energy and that is their eroticism, you know, power and violence, actually, and ambition kind of is part of their erotic language,” Emma said.
The scale of the new season also gave the actors a different kind of energy to work with. Emma said this was clear from the moment the cast began reading the scripts.
“The season just operates at a different scale, both in terms of sort of dramatic scale, but also in terms of some really kind of unusually ambitious set pieces,” Emma said.
Season 3 features elements rarely seen on television, they continued.
“You know, honestly, stuff that you don’t see on television and set pieces that have been… you know, this is stuff that filmmakers are trying to pull off in camera,” Emma said.
“And I think for all of us who are kind of really thrilled by the craft, that is particularly exciting.”
For Matt, that expanded scale of the show includes Daemon’s action-oriented scenes, which he said can be fun but also demanding.
“There’s a great physical challenge that comes with it as well,” he said.
He also gave credit to the stunt team behind the show’s fight sequences.
“One has to give great props to the wonderful stunt team that are involved in this show who realize all of those things and without whom it wouldn’t live in the way it does,” Matt said.
“Ultimately, you know, sort of getting to roll around in the mud and being all bloody is quite fun.”
Sans spoilers, as per the show’s synopsis, following the Season 3 premiere of “House of the Dragon,” the war is no longer a threat waiting to happen; it has begun. Rhaenyra is seen carrying the pressures of being both queen and mother, while Daemon is back in the violence of war. Together, the episode places the two Targaryens at the center of a conflict where power, family, love and survival are increasingly hard to separate.
(New episodes of “House of the Dragon” Season 3 stream Mondays at 9 a.m. in the Philippines on HBO Max.)
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