Paddy Considine

House of the Dragon star Paddy Considine talks about the end of King Viserys Targaryen's journey. We will never see his like again.

Westeros is on the verge of all-out war for the throne. House of the Dragon continues Sundays on HBO and HBO Max. Martin sketches out Viserys in Fire & Blood, but Considine and the House of the Dragon writers definitely added more layers. [Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels](https://www.amazon.com/b/?rh=i:instant-video,n:2858778011&ie=UTF8&filterId=OFFER_FILTER=SUBSCRIPTIONS&node=2858778011&ref_=assoc_tag_ph_1465430649312&_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=pf4&tag=fs-livedrops1-20&linkId=90b2815fb79ba0e403137c68e139db16%E2%80%9D) He definitely did the character justice. Unlike Joffrey, Cersei, Aerys II, and many of the other rulers who have sat the Iron Throne, he wasn’t corrupted by his office: With Viserys out of the picture, the power struggle begins. He asks them to see him as a father or brother, not as a king. If he was a tyrant? What he said was possibly the best thing an actor can hear: Considine’s portrayal of Viserys is masterful. As the Starks say: the pack survives.

The actor shares how he developed the beloved character and what he was thinking in those final moments of Sunday's show.

The narrative I had in my mind was that he never really gets over Aemma, that he’s devastated for the rest of his life." So I think this is the end." But I kept that private; I never actually disclosed that in the end," he continues. I always had an idea in my head, whether it was useful to the story or not, that the last thing Viserys sees before he dies is the person who comes to collect him from this mortal life. I think he accepts it as part of the guilt of the decision he makes to put his wife through a terrible, horrible procedure. He emerges from a medically-induced, bed-ridden haze to make one final push to protect daughter Princess Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) and her children, wearing a Phantom of the Opera-type gilded mask on one side of his face as he ascended the Iron Throne for the last time. But I would struggle with that," the actor admits. "No, I haven’t, and I’m not sure if I ever will," the actor responds. "Nowhere in the story does Viserys ask the maesters to cure him, to stop this thing from eating him alive. When they offer suggestions to cure him, he doesn’t bother with it. In his final days, the peaceful king's body was emaciated, his eye missing, and a large chunk of flesh torn from his cheek by his disease. The 49-year-old English actor will not, however, be actually looking back at his performance on-screen.

In House of the Dragon episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides,” King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) succumbs to his illness and dies. Considine reflects on the ...

That’s the last time this man will walk, and this is the last time this man will stand.” They got this seat and they carried him in on this seat and placed him at the table. That’s why I wanted it.” I think he’s the best character I’ve ever played, and I just wanted something of him. I remember I spoke to Ryan [Condal, co-creator] about the meal — the “last supper,” we called it — and I remember saying to him, “Look, man, he can’t walk into that room. It’s in my garage and people see it and say, “What’s that?” That’s the only thing I have. I always had this idea in my head of, this is the last day of this man’s life, and he knows it. That’s the investment that we had in it at that point. As far as my character is concerned, I think I got to have a really great arc and tell a really great story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and you can’t really ask for anything more than that if you’re just in it for one season. I did get a little emotional when Daemon picks up the crown and hands it to you. You have a different set of kids in the afternoon to the ones you had in the morning — that wasn’t exactly it, I’m kind of messing around a bit, but that was sort of how it was. I think part of him — and part of me as an actor, what I brought to him — was looking at all these people and going, Why are you fighting over this seat? [Bush and Blair](https://www.vulture.com/article/slow-burn-the-road-to-iraq-war.html), look at the shit, the absolute clusterfuck that all that was. Being the kind of person that he is, he just wanted to keep that going and uphold those virtues.

Queen Aemma, who was played by Sian Brooke, passed away in the show's first episode. house-of-the-dragon-paddy-considine-viserys- ...

I think he accepts it as part of the guilt of the decision he makes to put his wife through a terrible, horrible procedure. Just before Viserys passes, he utters the words, “my love” while stretching and reaching out to the open air. [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/10/arts/television/house-of-the-dragon-paddy-considine.html), Considine says he believes that from the moment Aemma passed, Viserys began dying. One of his biggest challenges was the issue of his health. However, both Aemma and the child pass leaving Viserys broken. [House of the Dragon](https://collider.com/tag/house-of-the-dragon/) has seen his time on the series come to an end.