Abubakar Salim and Clinton Liberty don’t look much like brothers – they are both over 6ft, but while Salim is stocky and steadfast, Liberty is slender and restless. And they don’t talk like brothers: Salim is plain-spoken and direct, with the accentless English of Welwyn Garden City, while Liberty’s speech is a whirlwind of superlatives, delivered in a broad east Ireland brogue. Meeting them is a bit like interviewing a double act familiar from a thousand cop shows: the jaded veteran and the wide-eyed newcomer.
Yet, not only do the pair play bastard brothers in the new series of House of the Dragon, but the experience was so intense that they have become chosen family in real life. “It was a journey we started together,” says 26-year-old Liberty, for whom House of the Dragon represents a significant step up in scale after grounded Irish dramas such as Normal People and Holding. “And we bonded over how crazy it all was. Every day we’d think we were getting used to it, then it was just like … what is going on? Is this real? Are you sure?”
