Season 3 of House of the Dragon introduced one of its most unsettling new antagonists: Lord Ormund Hightower, played with controlled intensity by James Norton.
While Ormund projects the image of a refined English gentleman with a dark edge, the actor reveals through The Hindu, that a strange and highly specific sensory sensitivity became the key to unlocking the character.
A heightened sense of smell
According to Norton, Ormund’s extreme sensitivity to smell was the central hook that shaped his entire performance.
“It was something I could lean on. If someone is that sensitive to smell and that terrified of its power, he is constantly on the edge. There is a tightness, paranoia and fear undercutting everything. It is almost like every sinew of my body was ever so slightly taut all the time, which was a helpful thing to play with as an actor.”
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This quirk is not merely a quirky detail. It informs Ormund’s constant state of tension and control. His particularity extends beyond smell to food, sensuality, and taste, creating a man who is fastidious to the point of obsession.
The costume and props departments worked closely with Norton to reinforce this trait. His armour and sword were elaborately crafted, as if Ormund had personally supervised their creation, and his pomander was regularly sprayed with lavender oil so that he always smelled clean and refined.
Building an odd man
Norton notes that the book Fire & Blood offers only a light description of Ormund Hightower, giving the creative team a blank canvas. Showrunner Ryan Condal envisioned him as a proper English gentleman with a twisted undercurrent, and the actor was encouraged to go “big and bold.”
The result is a character whose outward elegance masks deep paranoia and volatility. The sensory sensitivity becomes both a source of power and a vulnerability.
That self-perception, combined with the constant low-level terror of sensory overload, makes Ormund one of the most distinctive and unsettling figures introduced in Season 3.
