Thanks to Sunday’s “House of the Dragon,” we’ve got a new entry in the “Game of Thrones” bath-matic universe.
Continuing in the tradition set by Jaime and Brienne’s bathtub scene in “Game of Thrones” Season 3, this week’s “House of the Dragon” gave us more insight into Ormund Hightower (played by James Norton) via dialogue delivered both in and out of the bathtub at his Tumbleton quarters.
As the Hightower leader holds an audience with some disgruntled local nobles, he steps out of the water and dries himself leisurely as he announces that he’s not planning to change any of his plans — nor be threatened by Rhaenyra Targaryen’s beasts.
“We discussed beforehand how far to push it,” Norton tells me in the video above. “Coming into he show at a later stage, you have the benefit of being able to see and feel the tone. And the show is epic and muscular and terrifying and playful and fun and irreverent.”
He continues: “That was my first opportunity to go, ‘Let’s go big. Let’s see how big a swing we can take here.’ And we kind of kept getting bigger and bigger as we got out of the bath, delaying the towel longer and longer. We were playing, and it was a collaborative journey. I remember I was like, ‘I’m just going to go big and c*ck my hip and go, ‘Is she a queen, or is she. b*tch with a dragon?'” He laughs. “And I went so big, and they used it!”
‘Sets us up for a fraught old time’
James Norton, whose past TV credits include “The Nevers,” “House of Guinness,” and “Grantchester,” gave credit to showrunner Ryan Condal and the behind-the-scenes team for making him feel comfortable enough to pull off Ormund’s in-the-buff peacocking.
“I would not have gone that big were I that I didn’t trust the show, that I didn’t trust the people involved. Because if you do go big, you can put yourself in a very vulnerable position as an actor,” he adds. “I went big, they used it, it worked, it paid off… We had a lot of fun that day.”
As those who watched Episode 4 know, the hour also showed Ormund in a much more rattled (albeit decidedly more clothed) state as he learned that Aemond (and Vhagar) wasn’t coming to support the Hightower army’s occupation — meaning Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and his young beast became the Greens’ biggest hope.
Ormund “Is so self-assured. He has conviction in his cause,” Norton says, explaining that the character’s “fanaticism he has around the superiority of the Hightower lineage” may just be his downfall.
“The fact that he’s willing to talk about Daeron’s Targaryen blood being ‘tainted,’ the savagery that exists within the Targaryens,” Norton says. “That conviction — and if that cause which he believes in is such a virtuous cause, such an honorable cause, to put a Hightower on the Iron Thone — if he doesn’t achieve that, then I think that’s his North Star. He so fervently believes in that cause… But that’s dangerous because he will fight, tooth and nail, for that, against all the odds.”
He chuckles. “So yeah, sets us up for a fraught old time.”
Press PLAY on the video above to hear Norton’s thoughts on Ormund’s quirks — including all that stuff about smell — then hit the comments with your thoughts!