Kieran Bew knows how important a good beard is. He attributes Hugh Hammer’s success in taming the giant Vermithor in House of the Dragon‘s seventh episode of the season, “The Red Sowing.”
“I had a big beard and everyone was debating whether I should shave it off or not,” says Bew. “And I just said, I love Vermithor’s design with his teeth, it looks like they’re going in all sorts of directions; like it would be insanely painful if he bit you, almost like you’re trapped in an iron maiden or something. And I thought that was a slightly funny joke about how people who have dogs end up looking like their dogs.”
Bew was aware that Hugh’s entire arc of the season was leading up to his showdown with Vermithor, and he was aware of how many aesthetic choices there were to determine the depth of the decision to go to Dragonstone: He kept the beard, and his hair was the same color as Daemon (if not Viserys’), with a little of Bew’s own natural color mixed in. And as he watched Hugh’s agitation with the ruling class of King’s Landing grow, Bew found the role in small increments, like him being so desperate for food that he punches a fellow citizen to get a bag.
For him, the scenes were “always like a skeleton” for the larger character arc. But like any good actor (or, as is the case with the interpretation of many Fire & Blood‘s textbook report, historian), it was his task to piece together the lived humanity in between.
“To get a scene where my character reveals something big to his wife […] and he argues to go on a suicide mission,” wonders Bew. “So much so, he decided to keep it a secret. Out of shame, because [his mom] dazed, because of his upbringing, because it was so painful.
“He tried to do something different. And now he says: Actually, that’s the only thing I can do. I’m in so much pain. I have to do something, I have to do this..”
And so Bew put all this energy into the final scene of Episode 7, in which Rhaenyra’s plans to find Vermithor as a rider go awry. For him, Hugh’s desperation – to do something, Object — was nearly suicidal, even if he’s still scared right now. “He’s come all this way, the stakes are so high, he thinks the dice are slightly in his favor. But it’s still pretty damn scary,” Bew says. “How do you develop a strategy against something that can move so fast and crush you and drop people on their heads in flames?”
Of course, his delay also had its advantages. “The only thing [it] going down the drain means: the chances increase.”
For inspiration for what the ultimate moment of connection should feel like for Hugh and the Bronze Fury, Bew drew on his time on set—particularly when he approached a crew member’s small Yorkshire terrier on set, who kept trying to aim at the tennis ball eyes of pre-CG Vermithor.
“The moment I claim something, it has to be that this dog likes me, that this dog forms a connection with me,” says Bew, acknowledging that there is a difference between a tiny terrier and a dragon the size of four houses. “It’s a connection that is so delicate. But before we get there, it’s overwhelming. And it’s terrifying. And it requires giving up everything.”
And in Bew’s mind, everything about Hugh’s claim on Vermithor is due to this desperation. Unlike other dragons, Vermithor is looking for a rider who, as the saying goes, fit his freak. So it’s no surprise that Hugh’s aggressive approach appealed to the mighty dragon, given Hugh’s claim that Vermithor is selfless in this regard – he even intervenes when the dragon sets his sights on another Targaryen bastard. After all, there’s nothing like the fear of failure to turn an impossible thing into a race.
“He was pushed into it. There’s something about growing up in the shadow of the aristocracy, a family he’s been cast out of and a family he doesn’t belong to – not only does he not belong, he’s connected to it in a way that fills him with shame and anger,” says Bew.If Vermithor chooses her, what will happen to me?”
