House of the Dragon’s Matthew Needham on What Larys Knows (and the Surprising Way He Feels) About Alicent and Ser Criston’s Affair
To hear House of the Dragon‘s Matthew Needham tell it, Larys Strong is the supportive bestie Alicent Hightower needs during a particularly rough patch of life.
OK, OK — as you’ll see in the video at the top of this post — Needham doesn’t say those exact words. But he does tell TVLine that the cunning court manipulator has only good feelings about Alicent and Ser Criston’s ongoing sexcapades, as revealed in the Season 2 premiere. (Read a full recap, then hear what Olivia Cooke and Fabien Frankel think of the new development.)
“I think he’s sort of happy that Alicent has something nice going on for her,” Needham says.
And — as you’ll also see in the interview above — we were very surprised to hear that, given that his character once famously masturbated to the then-queen’s feet while she was in the same room.
“I think he’s happy for her that in all this sort of misery and everything going on, that at least she’s having a nice time at night,” Needham says, deadpan, before explaining that knowledge of the dowager queen’s affair with the lord commander of the Kingsguard doubles as “currency, as well.” He points out that Episode 1’s brutal murder of young Prince Jaehaerys happened when Criston and Alicent were otherwise occupied in her bed.
“The fact that they made the house vulnerable,” he says, sounding unnervingly like his character, “that’s something to think about.”
Press PLAY on the video above to hear Needham’s thoughts on Larys’ strategy in Season 2 (“I think he wants to leave a mark and have an effect, and the way you do that in this world is through power”) and what might cause the Machiavellian schemer to “improvise” in episodes to come.
