Paddy Considine revealed at the Game of Thrones convention in LA that his oxygen levels dropped dangerously during the filming of House of the Dragon. The actor was resigned to the bed during the filming of King Viserys’ death scene and asked to breathe in a rather pained way. The actor explained that his oxygen levels fell to a dangerously low level during the scene.
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The aging monarch was one of the most iconic parts of the show and his death scene held incredible sway on the tone of ‘House of the Dragon’. In an effort to get a realistic performance, the actor had to restrict himself to the breathing pattern and the bed for hours on end. The scene took quite a while to film, leaving the actor in a rather precarious position.
“It was a couple of days and it wasn’t just difficult in an emotional way, it was just difficult to shoot,” said Considine. “I was lying in that bed for hours and hours and doing that kind of breathing. The strange thing that happens is you think you’re just acting [but] what happened when I was breathing that way was after a few hours my oxygen levels went straight down.”
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“It was interesting because it was almost like my brain was telling my body how to breathe and my physiology was reacting to it,” he explained. “So my oxygen was dropping down. So I actually felt like I was dying, which was fun.”
Paddy also had some interesting insights, specifically, to do with Viserys’ deathbed vision. The actor points to the death of Aemma, Viserys’ wife, as the beginning of his downfall. “Ultimately, when he dies, I just had this idea that, before he leaves that realm, Aemma is the one that comes to meet him and he’s finally back with her,” he said. “So that was it. It was a line that was improvised.”
His insight into Viserys’ provides some rather interesting quandaries for audiences to consider and adds even more layers to an already compelling character.
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