Sam C. Wilson revealed some trickery House of the Dragon pulled off for Cheese kicking his dog, while also sharing his experience as Blood on the other end of King Aegon’s hammer.
Blood and Cheese only first appeared in Season 2, Episode 1, when Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen hired them to sneak into King’s Landing and kill Aemond. However, the rash troublemaker left enough wiggle room in his instructions to ensure someone died.
And that’s precisely what happened: Prince Jaehaerys, a child, was beheaded in his bed.
[ House of the Dragon Season 2 Cast, Characters & Actors (Photos) ]
Sam C. Wilson on Portraying Blood and Being Killed By Aegon
In an exclusive interview with The Direct’s Russ Milheim, House of the Dragon actor Sam C. Wilson, who plays Blood, spoke about his experience on the show This includes the special moment in which Tom Glynn-Carney’s King Aegon smashes him with a hammer.
"It was a fun moment," Wilson said about his death scene, where he also pointed out how there was a "bone sticking out of [his] jaw:"
"It was a fun moment. We did prosthetics around my jaw and stuff like that. So, for the mega fans, if you slow it down, there really is a kind of bone sticking out on my jaw for a moment. That was great fun. Tom [Glynn-Carney], who plays Aegon, is a lovely guy. I've met him a few times before; he's a really sweet guy."
While it is usually sad for one’s character to die, Wilson himself admitted that Blood is "a total piece of shit" who he hoped was going to get killed:
"And yeah, the hit across the face. I mean, look, I was all for Blood getting absolutely--Blood's a total piece of shit. As I said, when I was watching it, I filmed it a long time ago, and I look nothing like him. So when I was watching it on screen, I was just like, 'I hope this guy gets killed.' I'm really into the idea of Blood getting his comeuppance. I think I would have struggled for him not to."
Besides murdering the young prince, another horrific moment Blood was privy to was when Cheese kicked his dog—which had many audiences shocked, to say the least, especially because of how convincing it looked.
"They actually had a blue ball on the of a stick," Wilson explained, further elaborating how "there’s no dog there:"
"They actually had a blue ball on the end of a stick. I cannot give enough credit to the art departments, [and] the CGI and VFX guys. It looks so acutely like the dog is being kicked, and the dog, when [Cheese] does the kick, there's no dog there. [Cheese] kicks a ball in thin air. So he's completely computer generated, the dog being kicked. So Mark made it look like he was kicking thin air."
Wilson joked that he and his co-star Mark Stobbart brainstormed a variety of false, wacky tales about how they pulled that moment off:
"Me and Mark [Stobbart] thought it'd be funny to tell people that they used a cat and painted it green. And we came up with all sorts of nonsense answers that we could give. We actually used a horse in a dog costume. And then the VFX guys shrunk the horse down, just to be as facetious as possible. But no, in the kick moment, there is nothing there."
According to Wilson, audiences "would be even more angry if they met… the dog himself," who he called "outrageously cute:"
"But the dog himself, Bobby, Oh my gosh, that dog is outrageously cute. They would be even more angry if they met him. He's the dog that plays the dog. Bobby is so sweet, obedient, earnest, and the loveliest. We each said the same thing when we met him. I said, 'Mike, you're not going to be able actually to kick the dog'... And then we spoke to the CGI guys, and they had a big blue soccer ball on the end of a stick. It's amazing how they do it."
One mystery of Episode 2 is how the installment opens on Ewan Mitchell’s Aemond Targaryen finding a mysterious coin, which leads the prince to conclude that it was Matt Smith’s Daemon who was trying to kill him at the end of Episode 1.
Though some of the specific details remain unclear, many fans assumed that the coin may have fallen out of Blood and Cheese’s persons while they scavenged around the castle looking for their target. But is that what it's from?
Sam C. Wilson confirmed to The Direct that it’s "some of the gold [Daemond] gave [him] at the gate:"
"So you know how we've got some gold? To my understanding, [Blood is] scrambling around loading more gold into pockets. And I think some of the gold that has been handed to me when I was at the gate when I say 'fuck the High Towers'... So that's some of the gold he gave me at the gate… I don't think Blood is the most nimble of men."
Speaking on his time in the show as a whole, Wilson exclaimed how "every department [was] at the top of their game" throughout production:
"Every department is at the top of their game. And it's kind of crazy. The actors are incredibly talented. The set designers are the best. The prosthetics, the makeup operation, and I call it an operation. It isn't a makeup room; it's an operation. Hair, people are turning up to work looking one way, coming out of that little part of the studio looking like a Targaryen or, indeed, a ratcatcher."
One particular part of Wilson's experience on set that blew his mind was how they built an entire sewer for the scenes where Blood and Cheese snuck into the castle:
"They built a sewer... I thought they would have us in a tub of water up to here with blue around us. And then no... So when you're actually in the surroundings, you're being asked to imagine that you're in, and the makeup department has been so thorough with the grips in your nails that you can look down and feel oily and sweaty, and it's just so good. So, not much acting is required, other than, of course, being a Cockney Gold Cloak who doesn't mind killing children."
When it comes to that art of the role, the actor made sure to reiterate that he is obviously not anything like Blood and how "it’s totally make-believe:"
"You know when actors talk about, 'Oh, this is the part of myself that I drew on here... I have no two ways about it. It's make-believe, and that's it. It's make-believe land that looks cool. And it's totally make-believe. Because of the logistics of working with kids... It's about keeping everyone safe and calm and okay. Because you're at work and want to make something that the fans love. But actually, Mark [Stobbart] and I hope you are perfectly capable of pretending."
"We don't have to go somewhere really dark," explained Wilson when looking at how he had to prepare for the role:
"Like, we don't have to go somewhere really dark because for that kind of––if I were playing someone closer to me, then yeah, sure, I would use a lot of myself. But in the case of playing someone like Blood, what I ended up using were elements of characteristics I'd seen out in the world..."
Wilson revealed that his biggest inspiration for the character actually came from "a butcher" he used to go to whom it may concern "had a very thick London accent:"
"There's a butcher that--I used to live in northeast London, and there's a butcher that I used to go to, and he had a very thick London accent... And he would look you in the eye while he cleavered meat when he ordered a steak or something. And I thought, God, he's terrifying. And I thought, oh my god, it's Blood."
"I don't want to let him know he was [the inspiration," joked the actor:
"I don't want to let him know that he was. It ends up being a combination. There was a Performance by an Actor in the original series of 'Utopia' on Channel Four. His name was Neil Maskell. And he did a thing with heavy breathing with his character in that, and I remember finding it utterly terrifying. And this was at a time when I was dreaming of getting into TV. So there are elements of that, too. It's like an actor's dream you get asked to play someone that you could never be anything like."
Wilson made sure to "read the book," Fire & Blood, as he prepped for Blood:
"When I got the part, I went and read the book with the illustrations and everything... Blood had a shaved head in that. And I thought, Great, I'll go bold, and I had all sorts of fantastical ideas about what we could make him look like. And actually, I'm really happy where we ended up with it. So, in a sense, creating Blood was collaborative."
The actor jestfully described the Goldcloak as "all the worst parts of Henry the Eighth:"
"Everyone has their ideas of how they wanted him to look, and I thought, actually, this kind of heavy breathing finds everything irritating; he probably got gout in both knees… It's kind of all the worst parts of Henry the Eighth. Like a tired bear. I wanted him to be like that. And that, in a sense, was my job."
As for what Wilson has lined up next, he's working alongside former House of the Dragon star Paddy Considine, who played Viserys in Season 1, on two different projects called Deep Cover and Small Town Big Story:
"I'm doing a film and a series, both with Paddy Considine. I'm doing a movie with him, called 'Deep Cover,' and that's a little London thing. He, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ian McShane, all those guys. And 'Small Town Big Story,' which was written by Chris O'Dowd and is based in Ireland. Paddy Considine starring with Christina Hendricks. And I am also alongside him as a character called Big Jim. Who is a big, soft bastard who gets cast as a hard Celtic nutjob."
The actor then teased how he’s currently "filming something at the moment" that he’s "so excited about:"
"And I'm filming something at the moment, but I'm not allowed to say what it is. It's really annoying because it's the one I'm so excited about... I'm a bit of a sci-fi geek. I also have a lot of memorabilia and sci-fi. I love comics. And this particular thing, I'm like, 'Oh my God.' When I got it, too, I was like, 'Okay, cool.' I've arrived at a place that I really want to be. So, I'm chuffed. I'm really delighted."
House of the Dragon is now streaming on Max.
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