Tom Bennett plays Wolf White in House of the Dragon.
[This story contains spoilers from House of the Dragon season two episode seven.]
That’s not much game of thrones It’s an in-universe occurrence for a small character to take center stage and have a hero moment at the end of the episode, but that’s what happened in Sunday night’s HBO episode. House of the DragonWhen Wolf White, a tavern dweller hoping to adopt a Targaryen bastard child, wins the dragon lottery by bonding with Silverwing.
Interestingly, British actor Tom Bennett hasn’t had quite the same path as his characters. Bennett has been active in the industry for 20 years, with credits in the following films: Phone Shop, Love and friendship and RocketmanBut the cast Dragon This is arguably his most high-profile role and it’s not the first time he’s auditioned for the series.
Below, Bennett talks about being thrust into the spotlight in episode seven, his character’s journey this season, and how the franchise is moving in a unique direction of class consciousness by giving the people of Flea Bottom their own storyline.
Have you seen your episode yet? You’re doing some really cool stuff.
No. I saw a very rapid edit of Episode 7 and Silverwing was only 70% rendered. So I haven’t seen the finished version, but I know what you mean.American Horror Story) is directing it, so we know it’s going to be a big, explosive movie and people are going to die.
So what’s it like as an actor to be in this huge HBO show, going from having your low-key bar scene to all of a sudden being the center of the drama with this big dragon action scene?
I feel like a 10 year old boy House of the DragonIt feels like a dream come true. I’ve been an actor for 20 years and I’ve never played a role of this magnitude. And, yes, he’s in a supporting role. He hangs around and drives the story a little bit, but we don’t really know who he is. Even in the tavern scene where I give a three-page monologue about being of Targaryen descent, we don’t know if he’s lying or if it’s true. It’s all left very loosely. And then it turns out I have Targaryen descent.
Many of the actors in these shows have previously auditioned for other roles in the series, had you tried out for other roles before this?
I only had one. game of thrones Audition? [season] Three? I auditioned for a role as a security guard for The Comedian, and he’s taking a piss and then he gets eaten by a direwolf. It was a good scene, but it was one scene, and now I’m riding a dragon. I’m glad I didn’t get the part, because I probably wouldn’t have been the wolf now.
Obviously he’s been told his whole life that his mother was Viserys and Daemon’s sister, but he’s not sure if that’s true. I think that was fun to act out in the early scenes, because he’s not really sure if he’s lying but he plays it as if it is.
Yeah, for a free pint of mead, that’s true. It changes temperature when you’re like, “Okay, prove it’s true.” Maybe a dragon will kill you. Now, I don’t know.
So Wolf is out on Dragonstone, in a crowd with other Targaryens who have presumably been told similar things their whole lives. What is he thinking?
He was thinking, “These people look more Targaryen than I do.” There are a lot of people with white hair. My name is Wolf White, but I’m close to white. And then he starts to panic. There comes a moment where I’ve been telling lies to get a free pint of Guinness, and then there’s this giant dragon. There’s a very good chance that we’re all going to die, and there’s a 98 percent chance that we’re going to die horribly.
All they got was a lovely speech from the Queen and then being burned alive.
“We met the Queen and the Queen spoke to us.” My assumption that I was just happy to be alive was overturned. It was absolute chaos.
So what is he thinking as he faces off against Silverwing?
So I ran into the cave and stumbled through a lake of dragon dung and piss.
Ah, so that’s what it was.
And I put my foot in the dragon egg. I know what’s going on. The mummy is obviously there. She saw this. She doesn’t like the way I look. And he goes, “Game over.” [Bill Paxton in] alienI think I’m going to get burned and eaten. And I get a few bumps. But it turns out Silverwing doesn’t want to kill me. She’s taken a liking to me for some reason. I don’t know if it’s my smell or my Targaryen blood, but she’s been toying with me like a cat with a mouse. Eventually, she accepted me as her rider.
I loved the laugh at the end. It was refreshing. This show isn’t really known for its humor.
I think he finds it hard to believe, and I felt that it was a natural reaction. You feel an immense sense of relief when you think you’re going to die. That’s what I decided, and Loni loved it, too, because, honestly, he’s one of the few characters on the show that actually smiles, let alone laughs. I tried to take advantage of that whenever I was on set. Wolf stands out for a lot of reasons, one of which is that he’s one of the few characters that I enjoy.
So Wolf went from completely powerless to pretty powerful, but how does that change a person?
This is a huge change. Wolf is at the bottom, at the bottom through and through. He’s poor, he’s oppressed. He’s a working-class person under the control of the ruling class, and he’s lived that his whole life. All of a sudden, he’s sitting on a nuclear warhead. The shift in power is huge. We’ll see what he does.
This season has been interesting overall in the context of the franchise as a whole, with commoner characters quickly ascending to positions of power, and it has a unique feel compared to what we’ve seen so far in Westeros.
Season 1 was about the ruling class, and we spent all our time in castles and thrones and council rooms. I think it’s really great this season to see the people of Flea Bottom. Flea Bottom has been there all along. Throne and Dragon Hands down. Now we can finally meet a real free bomber. I think this can only be a good thing for the upcoming season.
