Like most people, Ewan Mitchell is used to anonymity. So during a recent trip to Manhattan, she was surprised to be asked by a hotel concierge when she arrived: “Haven't you got your eye?”
Mitchell doesn't usually wear an eye patch, but Aymond Targaryen, the one-eyed dragon-riding warrior he plays in “House of the Dragon,” does. The actor is still getting used to strangers making the connection in public.
“I wouldn't have thought people would recognize me, but they do,” he said. “I think it's because of my strong chin.”
It was an afternoon in May and Mitchell, 27, was drinking a Coke in the hotel bar. He was wearing a black Alexander McQueen suit and was preparing to attend the season two premiere of “House of the Dragon,” the prequel to HBO's “Game of Thrones” that follows two factions vying for the Iron Throne.
When Mitchell debuted in the second half of Season 1, Aemond, the willful second son who grows up to covet his brother's throne, quickly became one of the show's most interesting and terrifying characters. Paired with Vhagar, the largest, meanest dragon in the realm, and with the most chiseled chin in Westeros, Aemond exuded the calm ferocity of a predator about to pounce.
“When I'm dressed as Emond and I catch myself in the mirror, it even scares me a little bit,” Mitchell said.
The shocking end of the first season, in which Aemond's dragon killed Lucerys Velaryon, Aemond's rival and relative, signaled to viewers that the one-eyed prince would take a central role in the impending civil war. In the most recent episode of Season 2, a fiery clash between three dragons established Aemond as the new standard bearer for his coalition – known as the Greens – and possibly the new king of the realm.
The result is that Mitchell, who had never watched or cared much about “Game of Thrones” before joining the prequel, now finds himself as one of the faces of the franchise. To help promote this new season, he embarked on his first major press tour and adapted to its demands.
When out of character, Mitchell speaks softly and occasionally flashes a boyish grin, though he retains much of Emond's seriousness and calm intensity. He's also very private: He stays off social media and has avoided sharing much with the public in the past. “Once you lose the mystery, you can't really get it back,” he said.
However, he knows that Aemond's key role in Season 2 means he also has to embrace the spotlight: “There's a point where you have to go, now is the time to pull back the curtain.”
Like Emond, Mitchell is a second son. He grew up in Derby, an industrial town in the middle of England, and his parents expected him to follow in his older brother's footsteps and work at Rolls-Royce (the aerospace and industrial technology company, not the car manufacturer).
Inspired by movies like 'Citizen Kane' and 'Taxi Driver', Mitchell knew early on that he wanted to be an actor. When he was 13, his teacher asked every student in his class what they wanted to do when they grew up. Someone wanted to be an engineer. another hoped to work as an electrician.
“Then he came up to me and I said, 'I'm going to be an actor,' and everyone laughed at me,” Mitchell said.
His family could not afford tuition for drama school, so Mitchell attended a two-year vocational school, where he studied design and technology while working part-time in a restaurant and in customer service at a local soccer club. Midway through the program, at 17, he was accepted into the Nottingham Television Workshop, a drama group that trains young people in acting. (Alumni include Bella Ramsey, Felicity Jones and Samantha Morton.)
Through the Workshop, Mitchell landed a lead role in a 2015 short film called Fire, about a young man who has fire pouring out of his hands. Once the short was released, Mitchell downloaded it onto twelve CDs, took the train to London and stopped by the offices of every agent he could find, giving them each a copy. The one person who called back continues to represent Mitchell.
“By hook or by crook, I wanted to make sure I was going to be in this business,” Mitchell said.
He was later cast in the ITV period drama 'The Halcyon' and Netflix's 'The Last Kingdom' and appeared as one of the Oxford students in the hit film 'Saltburn'. But playing Aemond in 'House of the Dragon' was his biggest career turning point by far.
“Since landing him, I feel like I'm now in a position to direct the course of my career,” he said.
Mitchell was re-watching the classic Hollywood adventure film “The Vikings” (1958) and thinking about how he wanted to play a morally dark character similar to the one played by Kirk Douglas when he received an email inviting him to submit a taped audition for Aemond . . When she finally auditioned in person, she made a lasting impression on “House of the Dragon” showrunner Ryan Condal.
“When Ewan walked into the room, he had this presence that I can best describe as unsettling,” Condal said. “It was kind of scary the way he did it and he was completely different from everyone else. And then he thanked us very politely and left the room.”
Condal remembers asking Kate Rhodes James, the casting director, “Is it always like this?” She replied, “Oh no, he's just a very intense boy from the north.”
To prepare for his role, Mitchell did not watch 'Game of Thrones'. Instead, he read parts of “Fire & Blood,” the George RR Martin book that inspired the show, and studied the performances of Michael Fassbender in “Prometheus” and Peter O'Toole in “Lawrence of Arabia,” each playing a figure. who exercises power for his own purposes.
On his first day on set, Mitchell consulted with Condal and decided that he would avoid interacting with Matt Smith, who plays Emond's equally menacing uncle and rival, the Demon, in order to heighten the tension between the two characters. Mitchell had grown up admiring Smith's performance in 'Doctor Who'. But on set Mitchell avoided eye contact with him, keeping his distance until the climactic scene near the end of season one, when Aemond and Daemon finally face off.
“There's this addictive kind of quality when you're in a character's shoes,” Mitchell said. “When you lose yourself for a moment, it's almost like a dream.”
When not playing, Mitchell still lives at his family home in Derby and spends time with his dogs, three whippets named Eva, Bella and Bonnie.
Although taking on the lead role in an international hit and taking part in an extensive press tour are new responsibilities for Mitchell, they are challenges he is confident he can master. Learning how to manage and sustain that success is a bit like taming and riding Vhagar, he said.
“Now that I'm at it,” he said, “I just have to stick to the dragon.”
