If there is an HBO character Dragon House Season 1 didn’t really do much to humanize, it was probably Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). The clubfooted character lurks in the shadows, conspires without remorse, and shocked viewers by seemingly forcing Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) to agree to a degrading arrangement in which she masturbated with her bare feet. However, Larys’ wildest moment came when she took Alicent’s comments that she wished her father, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), were back in King’s Landing to counsel her too far, even for Alicent. . Larys killed the current Hand and heir to the King with a single blow. The turn? The men Larys murdered were his own father and brother: Lord Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes) and Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr).
So what exactly motivates Larys Strong? And did we get the full picture of the perfidious spymaster in Dragon House Season 1? And what about those persistent rumors Is he a green seer who changes his skin into, uh, rats?
When Jugo Mobile sat down with Dragon House star Matthew Needham during a recent in-person roundtable interview, we were not only surprised by how kind and thoughtful his responses were, but also how often he mentioned that key scenes and lines were cut for time from the show’s first season. from HBO.
When Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence When Needham was asked about the trauma themes in the show, she said, “I mean, I always thought that part of the reason Larys is the way Larys is is because she comes from a very traumatic background.”
“There was [a deleted scene]Unfortunately, he didn’t appear on the show, but when you first meet him, people harass and abuse him because of his disability. And you get the feeling that that’s how he grew up. Every day for him was kind of traumatic,” Needham said. “I think one of the things about him is to re-inflict that damage on the world, the world outside of him.”
One person he seems to want to hurt in particular is apparently Alicent Hightower. When Jugo Mobile asked Needham about the shocking scene in which we see Alicent mechanically take off her shoes so Larys can masturbate, he said the context of that moment was potentially lost in on-screen translation.
“That’s another case where, you know, there were things that unfortunately didn’t make the cut,” Needham said. “When we discussed it, it was about… because he can’t touch her, but it’s a way to make her feel as embarrassed about that part of her body as he is about his.”
“That’s not translate completely, but it’s okay.”
“Obviously, if you cut like a line here and a line there and it all ends up like, you know, ‘It’s Tuesday!‘” Needham said, implying that the moment was a mundane weekly ritual built into the relationship and not an even greater power move. “But everything is okay”.
“I think one of his things is to re-inflict that damage on the world, the world outside of him.”
Matthew Needham
Although Needham seemed well-versed in the fan conversation surrounding his character, he shared that for his “own sanity,” he’s not connecting.
“I can’t do the online thing. I just can not. And I’m also very bad at it, so I don’t do it, but people come and tell me a lot of things about a lot of things. wild things,” he said.
The decider asked Needham directly if he had been aware of the popular theory that, as a descendant of the First Men, like the Stark family, Larys could have the same eco-seer ability as Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) or the ability to fight animals like the Stark children and their direwolves. Specifically, some have speculated that the incessant shots of rats crawling around the Red Keep were Larys keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the Hightowers and Targaryens.
“People have arrived [to me with that theory]Yes,” Needham said. “Oh, it’s difficult. I can, I can neither confirm nor deny it. But this is what’s great about the show and what’s great about the fans is how involved they are and how excited they are about the world.”
“And I say, ‘Ah OK!’ You know, but I can’t say for sure. Also because it would take away my enjoyment because if I said, ‘No!‘That ruins everything,’ Needham said before imagining how awkward it would be if he shot down any fan theories point-blank. “But its great. I love it.”
So Matthew Needham continues to stay silent on the “Larys as a green seer fighting rats” theory, but he’s more than happy to tease several key Larys moments that ended up on the cutting room floor in Season 1.
We hope that when Dragon House Season 2 premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16, and we get the full cut of Larys.
