House of the Dragons Season 3’s premiere on June 21 delivered the heartbreaking death of Jacaerys Velaryon, aka Jace, which has left many devastated. In the show’s official podcast, Harry Collett, who plays the young Targaryen prince, opened up about the hardships of acting dead under difficult set conditions.
Quick read:
- Harry Collett spoke about the “hardest acting” he has ever done.
- Jace’s death was hard to film due to the chaotic set conditions.
- The 22-year-old is glad that Jace’s death is impactful.
Harry Collett on filming the battle scene
Speaking of the devastating Battle of the Gullet in House of the Dragon Season 3 premiere on the podcast, Harry Collett revealed that filming them was “very weird.” He praised director Loni Peristere before reflecting on the challenges of acting dead in the water tank amidst massive waves and wind machines.
“To act dead is probably the hardest acting I’ve ever done in my life, especially in that water. Because I feel like everything I did this season was so loud. Like, there was wind machines, there was wave machines. And then Loni would just be either screaming his head off, or on a megaphone, shouting notes.”
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He added that the particular scene where the last arrow hits Jace was rather difficult. While filming in the indoor water tank, people pushed barrels underwater to create the waves, while Collett floated in the water.
“The waves would, like, come and obviously, hit my eyes and everything, and, like, water would go up my nose, so I’d cough. And then you just got Loni going, ‘Act more dead! Act more dead!’ And I’m like… ‘But I can’t.’ […] I get shot and I keep my eyes open. I don’t know, I should have done it like this and then kept my eyes closed. But I kept my eyes open, so it made my job ten times harder.”
He explained that he had multiple meetings with Peristere to discuss how Jace would be feeling in the moment. Understanding it like that helped him act the scene better.
Harry Collett is happy to be dead in House of the Dragon Season 3
Their character’s death is obviously not high on any actor’s to-do list. However, some are well aware of their character’s ultimate fate, and Harry Collett was one of them. Even so, he is happy that people will at least mourn Jace’s death.
“If you’re gonna die, you want people to care about your death, don’t you? you don’t want it to just be like, ‘Yes, he’s died,’ or even the worst, where they’re like, ‘Oh, I forgot he died.’”
Collett added that his co-star Emma D’Arcy was feeling emotional about Jace’s death on the day they filmed the scene. Meanwhile, the actor himself was full of adrenaline, so he did not feel the same. Regardless, he said, it was a “beautiful” moment.
