During a new interview with IndieWire, The House of the Beast director Geeta Vasant Patel narrated the turbulent history of Rhaenyra’s troubled relationship with Alicent. In his words, “I’ve always thought of the metaphor of it as two divorced couples who are still in love. Part of it is that they both want to be together in a way they don’t understand and can’t explain—it’s like first love.”
As he confirms in the article, the character’s shared chemistry has always been underwritten. “For example, in the first season, I was told that all of Episode 8 was about Rhaenyra and Alicent’s relationship and how they miss each other. Ok, is that on the page anywhere? No, never once on the page. In fact, it’s almost the opposite in every way, they always argue. So I had to understand, and Katie [Goldschmidt, House of the Dragon cinematographer], how to make it clear that they miss each other. There are certain ways, with cinematography, framing, structure, transitions, to move the scenes.
Patel revealed that he took visual inspiration from cloak and dagger spy films to convey Rhaenyra’s first secret meeting with Alicent earlier this season.
“In Episode 3, Rhaenyra sneaks into King’s Landing to talk to Alicent. There were three lines on the page. Ryan [Condal, House of the Dragon showrunner] he came to me and said, ‘Hey, I really want this to be suspicious. I don’t want to be just walking in, I’m talking.’ I had to sit down with Katie and the production team to figure out how, in the limited time we had, we could make it the same Objective: Impossible, where he’s trying to sneak in, it’s almost a miss—all the things Ryan wanted, we just had to figure out how to pump it all up and give him a choice in the lineup,” Patel said. “So what was three lines on the page was a whole day of shooting, where Emma and Olivia almost ran into each other. One went up the stairs, the other behind. This was a beautiful building. The film that really inspired me at the time, was The conversationwhere there’s a big, wide picture above the yard and you see the whole thing play out, and it gives you scope.”
In this way, Patel made sure that everything was ready to show the same in the second intense meeting of the character in the season finale. “We have been looking at both of them. You know when you cut your hair and they make sure both sides match? It is what it is. We kept measuring them both and just making sure the shift was tight and that there was a mirror, there was cause and effect. All the conversational energy was there between two scenes, then Ryan and Sara [Hess, executive producer and writer] “They’ve been making small adjustments, whether it’s by letting them know how they feel about the behavior or blocking, or having conversations with the actors,” said Patel.
“There is a lot of focus on those two scenes, it is known that they were the tentacles of the season in terms of that relationship. These are the two times you see the two of them together… Katie and I sat down and blocked out everything in Episode 3 to match what Greg Yaitanes did in Season 1 when they were young women. We added the flourishes of the scene itself in Episode 3 to make it different in other ways, with wide shots. We just leaned into the atmosphere of the knife, which was something they didn’t have when they were kids, so there were a few things that were different, but yeah, we wanted to make it almost like deja vu.”
Patel also praised the choice of Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke as actors to convey the unspoken sadness between them, thinking of the roles of Miley Alcock and Emily Carey in the first season as young Rhaenyra and Alicent.
“I think what was good about this scene is that it relates to all of us in that when you see someone you have had a long relationship with and you don’t have a relationship, like your sister or your brother or your lover, and that relationship. they started when you were young—when you see them, you immediately go back to whatever age you were, and you are allowed to be a child. Even if you are the President of the United States, you are soon 15 years old. The way these two brought out that quality really impressed me,” added Patel.
“He saw Rhaenyra’s face change in a way we rarely see. The was making these faces and these signs and saying things that were childish. Alicent had incredible emotions, but she also became the child she was. It was such a good decision that Olivia bit her nails. We all know that the quality was not coming out for a long time, and I think it was his decision not to bite off many episodes of the season to make sure that when he did come out, it was time. when he has to go back and feel like a child.”
Perhaps due in part to last year’s writers’ strike, the production department of the Dragon’s house they were left to dissect more of the series’ plot and character details than there were any other changes to the submitted scripts—a problem that, as seen in the past, doesn’t always lead to subtle and restrained decisions. However, Patel understood this assignment. “I felt a great responsibility. I felt honored to be able to do those two scenes. I felt a responsibility to Emma and Olivia, Ryan and Sara, who entrusted me with their shoot, and I took it very seriously.”
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