"It’s sort of inescapable in every aspect"- When Emma D'Arcy made her feelings clear about what shooting House of the Dragon was like
Emma D'Arcy has been propelled to global fame with her portrayal of Rhaenyra Targaryen in the acclaimed Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon. Like the original series, the spinoff too has a fanbase of its own that mimics the best days of GoT. Throughout the story, based on George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, Emma D'Arcy is leading from the front.
Of course, getting this pivotal role and playing it to perfection is a task on its own. However, anyone leading the franchise would definitely be interested in doing that to the best extent.
D'Arcy was not a huge Game of Thrones fan herself before she joined the spinoff but once she did, she was amazed by things that HBO production pulled off. Discussing the process of shooting for House of the Dragon, Emma D'Arcy said in a 2022 interview with The Interview Magazine:
"To be honest, I think one of the most striking things, and this is going to sound very obvious, is the sheer scale of the thing. It’s sort of inescapable in every aspect: the size of those sets, the length of the shoots, the size of the cast, the thousands of people who are working on it across multiple departments."
She added:
"The thing that I hadn’t anticipated before we started filming was the time that that scale affords. It was only after the first month of filming that I finally understood what my job was, which is to just show up, be present, and see what happens."
She also described the difficulties she faced in shooting for this grand show in the same interview.
"The ultimate challenge is having the stamina"- Emma D'Arcy on what she found difficult in House of the Dragon
House of the Dragon, just like its predecessor, is a huge project with many variables, characters, and immaculate storylines that require a lot of attention to the details. This also means that the series takes a long time and a lot of effort to shoot, partially the reason the second season came long after the first one's conclusion.
Emma D'Arcy, who has been one of the most active members of the cast spoke about this in the interview and revealed that the primary challenge for her in the shooting was conserving the stamina for the long hours of the shoot. In this same 2022 interview, D'Arcy explained:
"Fundamentally, the ultimate challenge is having the stamina to shoot for that long, and you’re doing these huge scenes that maybe have at least 20 to 30 cast members, then hordes of supporting artists in these huge rooms, and they’re playing at high emotional stakes. And you might be doing that for two weeks. Finding new resources to mine after ten days of one emotionally demanding scene is challenging."
Of course, a lot of other actors had to face the same thing, but that is partly why House of the Dragon is such a standout series. With the upcoming seasons, the story is only set to escalate further, which means there will be more of everything we have seen so far.
Currently, House of the Dragon season 3's production is underway and we expect to see Emma D'Arcy soon enough riding her dragon to battle.
The first two seasons of House of the Dragon are now streaming on Max.
