House of the Dragon’s Matt Smith Was Badly Injured On Set But Had to Return After Just 2 Weeks
If you were wondering why there wasn’t much Daemon action in season 1, here’s the answer.
There is no doubt that a show like House of The Dragon is very demanding to film. From what we know from season 1, the actors had to endure a lot: from the heat of filming in a tiny, fire-lit room in Spain to riding on the back of a mechanical dragon for 9 hours straight to get perfect shots.
But it was Matt Smith, who plays the series' fan-favorite bad boy Daemon Targaryen, who had to endure the most on set.
And no, we're not talking about his already well-publicized hatred of wigs: sadly, the actor had to overcome much harder things while working on season 1 of House of The Dragon.
As he opened up to Vanity Fair while sitting down with Jessica Chastain, the Game of Thrones prequel was "a very weird shoot" for him.
Not only did Smith have to deal with the mental anguish of losing a parent, but he was also physically injured during a stunt early in the shoot.
In episode 3, Daemon Targaryen gloriously battles the Crabfeeder at the Stepstones and wins the title of King of the Narrow Sea. Matt Smith's quiet but extremely powerful performance in this scene was acclaimed by both audiences and critics, but it cost the actor his health.
One day he slipped a disc in his neck, which caused him to take some time off.
“If you watch the latter part of the season, you can see I just can’t really move, because we had to keep shooting. I had to come back. So I had two weeks off. But it’s a long injury. So it goes from being quite a sort of physical performance really to at the end, I just sort of stood there,” the actor explained.
Fortunately for the production team and the fans, it all worked out quite well, as standing and lurking with a very suspicious look on his face fit the character perfectly.
Fans can hope to see more of Matt Smith as Daemon in action in House of The Dragon Season 2, which is already being filmed. There is no official news about the release date, so stay tuned for any important announcements.
Source: Vanity Fair