House of the Dragon Actor on Ulf the White’s Life Upgrade

Whereas it’s all the time been clear that Home of the Dragon‘s noble homes would anchor the season-two drama, it additionally grew to become obvious early on that the smallfolk—usually neglected, routinely oppressed—have been going to have new prominence in Westeros’ newest energy wrestle. Final night time, “The Purple Sowing” confirmed us simply how necessary sure “lowborn” characters have been actually going to be.

In case you’re not caught up…

In episode seven, Rhaenyra’s more and more frantic scheme to seek out two riders for Crew Black’s pair of riderless dragons really paid off: Hugh the Hammer received the snort of approval from Vermithor, and Ulf the White discovered a brand new buddy in Silverwing.

Ulf popped up in an earlier episode bragging about his Targaryen heritage, although he hesitated when he heard Rhaenyra was searching for bastards who would possibly develop into dragonriders. He has this nagging leg damage, you see… and he’s additionally unsure he actually has Targaryen blood—a severe consideration, as a result of a dragon will know who’s worthy, and can incinerate anybody who isn’t.

However—after some good-natured shaming from his ingesting buddies—he decides to strive his luck. And fortunately for Ulf, all of it works out; as we see within the episode’s last moments, he’s having an absolute blast using Silverwing over his outdated stomping grounds of King’s Touchdown (infuriating Aemond, the Prince Regent, within the course of). Chatting with the Hollywood Reporter, actor Tom Bennett mirrored on his character’s sudden life improve.

“It’s enormous. Ulf is the underside of the barrel; he’s Flea Backside via and thru,” Bennett stated. “He’s poor folks and the oppressed. He’s the working class man underneath the thumb of the ruling lessons and lived with that his complete life. All of the sudden, he’s sitting on a nuclear warhead. The facility shift is big. Let’s see what he does with that.”

Bennett additionally shared some insights into what led Ulf to that second—in addition to explaining what’s going via the character’s head when he realizes Silverwing isn’t going to roast him. To place it one other manner: why did he snicker in that second? “You suppose you’re going to die and there’s only a huge launch of aid, and that I made a decision and [episode director] Loni [Peristere] appreciated it. As a result of, let’s be sincere, he’s one of many solely characters within the present who ever smiles, not to mention laughs. Each time I’m on set, I attempted to make use of that. Ulf stands out like a sore thumb for a lot of causes. Certainly one of which is I’m one of many solely characters that’s simply having enjoyable.”

Home of the Dragon‘s eighth episode, the season two finale, arrives Sunday night time on HBO and Max.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and the whole lot you want to find out about the way forward for Physician Who.