House of the Dragon star Eve Best has opened up about the unusual auditioning process for the high-profile Game of Thrones spinoff.
The series, which debuts later this month, is set around 200 years before the events of HBO’s hit fantasy drama.
In the series, Best plays Princess Rhaenys Velaryon, a dragonrider and the daughter of of Prince Aemon Targaryen and Lady Jocelyn Baratheon.
Speaking to The Guardian, she opened up about the audition for the role, and confessed to being a newcomer to the entire Game of Thrones lore.
“I was a complete Game of Thrones virgin,” she said. “I knew it was a big deal but was unprepared for the sheer, gobsmacking scale of it.
“Walking on to the set was like walking into New York but instead of towering skyscrapers, it’s Dragonstone. The crew was nearly 4,000 people, which was jaw-dropping. I’ve caught up since.”
She then addressed the casting process, which she described as “very secretive”.
“To audition, we were initially sent a scene from the original Game of Thrones with the names changed,” she revealed. “We weren’t even told the title of the new show.
“When eventually I was sent a real script, I loved the writing. Ryan and Miguel [Sapochnik, co-showrunner] hooked me in immediately with the driving theme of the series.
She added: “There is a line my character says early on: ‘Men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend to the Iron Throne.’ Lose the word ‘Iron’ from that sentence and it feels all too relevant. To top it all off, they told me my character was a dragon rider. I was in!”
