5 Questions With Tom Glynn-Carney of HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’

Ollie Upton/HBO

You may recognize him as the current usurper of the Iron Throne, King Aegon II, the firstborn son of Alicent Hightower and her recently deceased husband King Viserys, who is also the father of Alicent’s childhood-friend-turned-enemy Princess Rhaenyra — making Aegon and Rhaenyra not only mortal enemies but also half siblings.

In addition to that, Aegon was married off to his own sister before being crowned king and setting off a war that will be the focus of the upcoming second season of House of the Dragon (premiering June 16 on HBO).

But that’s just Westeros for you! We recently sat down with Tom Glynn-Carney as he answered our “5 Questions.”

1. How did it feel joining the cast of a show with such a large fan base already attached to it?
It was a very large undertaking that I didn’t know if I was fully prepared for as a human being, but we were really lucky that we were riding on the shoulders of giants. It was an absolute gift to be able to get stuck into this story and these characters. I had never seen Game of Thrones at all until getting this role and felt like I should pay due diligence and sort of see what the whole thing was about and understand the world a little bit. Fantasy is not really something that I gravitate towards. But I absolutely fell in love with the TV show, and I blitzed it in about three weeks. I was filming a project out in the Sahara Desert, so we had a lot of free time, and everyone was trying to stay indoors, so it was quite easy to rattle through all the episodes.

2. Did you get to meet [author] George R.R. Martin at all? Is he ever going to finish that final Game of Thrones book? Everyone is dying to know.
I’ve never met George Martin. He has been on set, but I’ve always been either filming or busy in a fitting or something. I’m sure we will meet eventually. I’ll make sure to ask him.

3. Other than playing a guy married to his own sister and becoming king of a place with dragons, what was the weirdest job you’ve had?
I was a waiter at the Manchester Conference Center, and I had to do room service, so I was running down long corridors with trolleys full of food and drinks and stuff. And some of the things you saw when you were doing room service were things that no one should ever have to see.

4. Have you ever felt starstruck?
My first film job was Dunkirk, and I stepped on set there and so many of my idols were there — Chris Nolan, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy — all those amazing actors. And that was my first time on a film set. Yeah, I was overwhelmed, and pretty starstruck.

5. What shows are you currently addicted to?
Succession, The White Lotus and a show called This Country on BBC. It’s by Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper, who are brother and sister, and they write and star in it together. It is just the funniest, most brilliant, well-observed show, I think.