Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, James Norton, and Eve Best – House of the Dragon has quite the cast list. What’s more, the follow-up prequel to Game of Thrones has proved a hit with audiences since its debut in 2022. Nearly 10 million people tuned in for its first episode, making it HBO’s biggest ever premiere. Season 4 hasn’t been shot yet, but it has been commissioned. If dragons, backstabbing, and the odd drunken orgy float your acting boat, then bringing your talents to the world of the show may be just the gig for you.
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When the juggernaut that was Game of Thrones ended in 2019, TV executives’ thoughts quickly turned to how they might return to the fictional world of Westeros and beyond. The answer was House of the Dragon, a prequel set 200 years before GoT, focusing on the rise and fall of House Targaryen. The series is based on the book Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, who also penned the series A Song of Ice and Fire, on which GoT was based. Martin was closely involved in shaping the adaptation alongside showrunner Ryan Condal, with production based at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire.
House of the Dragon is the story of Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen’s ancestors. Like her, they all have peroxide blonde hair, a fondness for using dragons as modes of transportation, and an overwhelming desire for power. Leading the cast is Matt Smith, who plays peacocking baddie Daemon Targaryen. He’s the uncle and also later husband to Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra Targaryen, the main heir to the throne of King Viserys, played by Paddy Considine. Olivia Cooke plays Rhaenyra’s childhood friend and later stepmother Alicent Hightower. There are time jumps to confuse matters, but, essentially, it’s the bloody story of who will next sit on the Iron Throne.
Casting director Kate Rhodes James is likely to be in charge of casting for the fourth and final season of House of the Dragon, due in 2028. She’s cast the previous three seasons, as well as projects such as Sherlock, House of Gucci, Gladiator II, and Line of Duty. She calls herself a “warrior” for actors, so she’s definitely a CD you need to know and who you want to know you!
“We had a big board and we had the family tree,” James told Indiewire about how she and her team began the Dragons casting process. “I drew it and we would just have images of the sort of person we felt would be right in those roles.”
Talking to Backstage, she revealed what she looked for. “When you are casting a show like this, faces really have to be identifiable,” she says. “Because the names are complicated; it can be quite dark. Everyone has to really, really inhabit [their character] physically, as well as creatively.”
When it came to casting younger characters, James did much of the initial search through Instagram in the UK, requesting self-tapes from the talent she wanted to see more of. She said she looks for good temperament and listening skills.
What grabs James’ attention in an audition? “I always say to actors: Make a decision about the character. It doesn’t matter if it’s wrong.… Whatever that story is that you can’t get from the script, make a decision,” she told Backstage Magazine. “Don’t go into a room expecting the director to answer your question, because they haven’t got time. To get our attention, make a decision.”
“I love actors that know who they are,” she continues. “They have an inner voice and they’re not trying to please me. They bring what they want to bring in the room. Those are the sort of people I can bring in time and time again.”
Her final tip: “Google every single person that’s going to be in that room.… It just gives you power.”
As for the actors already cemented in the cast, it seems their casting experiences have been varied. Tom Glynn-Carney landed the role of Prince Aegon II Targaryen after James saw him dancing onstage in a play. Eve Best was called to audition for a secret show. “To audition, we were initially sent a scene from the original Game of Thrones with the names changed,” she told the Guardian. “We weren’t even told the title!”
“I auditioned [via self-tape] for three months during the pandemic after losing a year of work, so in some ways, I think my hands were tied,” D’Arcy told the Hollywood Reporter about their casting journey. “Halfway through the process, the then-showrunner, Miguel Sapochnik, called to ask me if I owned a wig. A proper person would’ve asked someone who does hair for advice. I had a bag of hair in my colour from another job, and me and my partner, we literally stuck it to my head, which took about two hours every time I self-taped. At the end of that, I did a four-hour in-person audition, and then I didn’t hear anything.” Eventually, after three months, they got the gig.
If you get as far as the audition room but don’t land a role, don’t be disheartened. “When people don’t get the job, nine times out of 10 it’s not because they’ve done anything wrong,” James told Backstage. “It’s just usually not quite what the director has in mind or they’ve met somebody else that they think would suit better.”
She offers this glimmer of hope: “What we do is stockpile actors over years and years and years and years that we love. So when we get a script…you have your back catalog of whom you think would be good.”
So stick at it, keep your eyes peeled for casting calls, and make sure you’re ready when the call comes for you to jump on the back of a CGI dragon in a bright blonde wig!