House of the Dragon has been enjoying its place in the cultural zeitgeist lately. Ratings for the show have been great for HBO, and a companion House of the Dragon podcast has been premiering alongside the series as it airs. Each week co-hosts Concepción and Johnsen interview actors from the series as they discuss the newest episode. For episode three, Alcock was the guest of choice.
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Concepción notes, in this episode, that in addition to learning an English accent (Alcock is Australian), Alcock had to act as a natural speaker of Valyrian. Rhaenyra frequently speaks with her uncle, Daemon (as portrayed by Matt Smith) in Valyrian, in addition to commanding her dragon, Syrax, using Valyrian commands. Alcock pointed out that the process was actually quite fun.
Alcock stated that the process was like “learning a song in another language,” explaining that she would first perform the scene in English before it would be presented to her on a printed-out sheet with a phonetic reading. She was also presented with an audio recording of the dialogue, and by the time she was ready to perform, Alcock says it was like she was on “autopilot.” After Concepción joked that she must have been speaking gibberish by the end of a take, Alcock jokingly agreed and said that it happened every time.
The Valyrian in House of the Dragon has been handled exceptionally. While Alcock’s Rhaenyra is similar to Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys, it’s clear that the latter learned Valyrian with a different accent when compared with the former, as Daenerys was raised in exile, rather than among the Targaryens in Westeros. Linguist expert David J. Peterson, who works as an advisor for the show and who crafted Dothraki and High Valyrian into proper languages, has put great thought into the linguistic differences that would be present in the world of Westeros.
Taking the House of the Dragon funeral scene of Queen Aemma Arryn and Prince Baelon from “The Heirs of the Dragon” as an example, it’s subtly clear that Rhaenyra speaks Valyrian differently from its portrayal in Game of Thrones. Rhaenyra trills out “dracarys” with a foreign inflection, rolling her ‘r’s, while Daenerys spoke it with more of an English accent. It’s little details like that that make the world of Westeros feel lived-in.
House of the Dragon airs on Sunday at 9 PM EST on HBO.
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Source: House of the Dragon Official Podcast
