[This story contains spoilers from House of the Dragon season two episode seven.]
It’s not often in the Game of Thrones universe when a smallfolk character gets to take center stage and have an episode-ending hero moment. But that’s what happened in Sunday night’s episode of HBO’s House of the Dragon, when tavern dweller and Targaryan bastard hopeful Ulf White won the dragon lotto by bonding with Silverwing.
Interestingly, the journey of British actor Tom Bennett has been not entirely unlike that of his character. Bennett has been a working actor for 20 years in productions such as PhoneShop, Love & Friendship and Rocketman. But getting cast in Dragon was easily his most high profile role — and not the first time he had auditioned for the franchise.
Below, Bennett talks about stepping into the spotlight in episode seven, his character’s journey this season and how the franchise is taking a unique class-conscious turn by giving the people of Flea Bottom their own story arcs.
Have you gotten to see your episode yet? Because you do some very cool stuff.
No. I’ve seen a very rapid assembly of episode seven, but Silverwing was only 70 percent rendered. So I haven’t seen it as it will be, but I get the idea. Loni Peristere (American Horror Story) is directing it, so you know it’s going to be big and explosive, and people are going to die.
So what’s it been like for you as an actor to come into this huge HBO show? You have these kind of low-key tavern scenes, then suddenly get to take center stage in the drama with this big dragon action sequence.
I feel like a 10-year-old boy being on House of the Dragon. It’s like a dream come true. I’ve been an actor for 20 years, but I’ve never operated on anything like this scale. And yeah, he’s introduced as this ancillary character. He’s hanging about, he drives a bit of plot, but we don’t really know who he is. Even in the tavern scene where I’ve got a three-page monologue about my Targaryen blood, we don’t know if he’s lying, whether it’s true. It’s all left very loose. Then it turns out, I do have Targaryen blood.
A lot of actors who get on these shows previously auditioned for other parts in this franchise, did you go out for another role before this?
I’ve only had one. I had one Game of Thrones audition, maybe [season] three? I auditioned to play a comedy guard, having a piss, and then he gets eaten by a direwolf. It was a good scene, but it was one scene, and now I’m flying a dragon. It’s a good thing I didn’t get it, because maybe now I wouldn’t be Ulf.
So obviously he’s led his whole life being told this story that his mother was Viserys and Daemon’s sister, but he doesn’t know for sure if it’s true, which must have been fun for you to play in those early scenes because he’s presenting it as being true while not really knowing if he’s lying.
Yeah, for the sake of a free pint of mead, it’s true. The different change of temperature comes when they’re like, “Okay, show me it’s true.” You might get killed by a dragon. Now I’m not sure.
So Ulf gets out to Dragonstone and he’s in this crowd with all these other possible Targaryens who have probably been told similar things over the course of their life. What’s he thinking?
He’s thinking, “A lot of these people look more Targaryen than I am.” There’s a lot of people with white hair. My name is Ulf White but it’s more salt-and-pepper gray. And panic sets in. There comes a moment where you’ve been spreading this lie for the sake of a free pint of Guinness and now you have to show up and there’s a fucking big dragon there. There’s a real distinct possibility we’re all going to die and 98 percent die horrifically.
All they got was a nice speech from the queen and then roasted alive.
“We got to meet the queen and she spoke to us.” I’ve been knocked off the parapet that I’m just happy to be alive. It’s absolute and chaos.
So what goes through his mind when he’s facing off against Silverwing?
So I run into the caverns and I’m stumbling through a lake of dragon shit and dragon piss—
Oh, so that’s what that was.
And then I put my foot through a dragon’s egg. I know what’s happening. The mummy is clearly there. She’s seen this. She doesn’t like the look of me. And it’s “game over, man,” in the words of [Bill Paxton in] Aliens. I believe I’m gonna be set on fire and eaten. And I get bumped around a bit. But what we realize is Silverwing doesn’t want to kill me. She has, for whatever reason, she’s taken a liking to me — whether it’s my smell or my Targaryen blood — and she’s toying with me like a cat would toy with a mouse. Eventually, she accepts me as her rider.
I liked your laugh at the end — it’s refreshing. The show isn’t really known for its humor.
I don’t think he can believe it, and that just felt like the natural response. You think you’re going to die and there’s just a massive release of relief, and that I decided and Loni liked it. Because, let’s be honest, he’s one of the only characters in the show who ever smiles, let alone laughs. Every time I’m on set, I tried to use that. Ulf sticks out like a sore thumb for many reasons. One of which is I’m one of the only characters that’s just having fun.
So Ulf has gone from totally powerless to rather powerful, how does that change a person?
It’s huge. Ulf is the bottom of the barrel; he’s Flea Bottom through and through. He’s poor folk and the oppressed. He’s the working class man under the thumb of the ruling classes and lived with that his entire life. Suddenly, he’s sitting on a nuclear warhead. The power shift is huge. Let’s see what he does with that.
That’s been interesting in general this season, just in the context of the whole franchise, to have these smallfolk characters being rapidly elevated to positions of power. It’s a unique vibe in terms of what we’ve seen before in Westeros.
Season one was the ruling classes, and we spent all our time in castles and on the throne and in council rooms. I think it’s really nice that this season, we get to see the people in Flea Bottom. Because Flea Bottom has always been there and a big part of Thrones and Dragon lore. Now we finally get to meet a few genuine Flea Bottomers. I think that can only be good for the season moving forward.