House of the Dragon Lord Corlys Velarion Interview with Steve Toussaint

It wouldn’t be a Game of Thrones series without a bloody fight, but even with four weeks of training behind him, Steve Toussaint wasn’t quite ready for the sheer effort required for the violent beach scenes in The house of the dragon. “It was exhausting,” Toussaint chuckles over Zoom from his London home. “My character doesn’t carry a sword, he carries a huge, heavy club. One end is a double edged blade and the other is a heavy skull crushing ball.

The 57-year-old British actor has spent nearly 30 years building a career with steady, character-driven performances from roles in Judge Dredd to Steve McQueen A small axe anthology series — but the first season of the HBO prequel series, set 172 years before the arrival of Daenerys Targaryen, puts his mettle to the test as Lord Corlys Velarion. “[In training,] I would spin it in my shorts, but then they put you in your suit and all of a sudden I was on a sand dune,” he recalled. “There’s smoke everywhere, the stuntmen aren’t coming at you one at a time like in practice, they’re coming from everywhere – you just hope they make everything look good!”

Certainly with Miguel Sapocnik on board as co-showrunner – the director behind the Emmy-winning epic Thrones Season 6 Episode “Battle of the Bastards” – Toussaint’s fighting performance was in good hands. Especially when his character, affectionately known as “The Sea Serpent”, has an admirable history of combat on land and sea. The head of House Velarion, Lord Corlys is the richest man in Westeros, with the largest fleet, thanks to the wealth he amassed from sailing the Seven Kingdoms as a seafarer. His Valyrian bloodline is as old as the Targaryens, a house he married into through Princess Rhaenys (Yves Best) and subsequently positioned him as an ally to her brother, King Viserys I (Paddy Considine). A civil war is brewing in King’s Landing over several future heirs to the Targaryen line, and while Lord Valerion may be on the sidelines in the opening episode, he’s headed for greater greatness. So don’t be surprised to see Toussaint’s white sea serpent exert its influence at court, as well as its fearsome staff, to best position House Velarion for a move to an even more central position of power.

“He’s all about the legacy and getting as close to the throne as possible,” says Toussaint. “This season is very much about interpersonal relationships, political maneuvering, and it’s a little more intimate than Thrones at its height. Whoever survives, we have grounding with him. If you find out who they are now, then the stakes are much higher. But as I read the last scene, there were some things in it that made me go, “Oh, you can’t do that!”

If Game of Thrones has taught viewers everything is that the writers will do whatever the hell they want. No one is safe The house of the dragon. So, with Season 1 hitting screens, Toussaint gives us the lowdown on his Westerosi player, getting used to the fandom amid the casting backlash, and what he hopes this season will adjust to in this brutal fantasy world where everything is allowed…

Men’s Health: Tell me how you came to be the Sea Serpent.

Steve Toussaint: My agency said, “There’s a project, and here are some scenes, it could be a big thing.” They changed all the names, and my partner, who was reading it with me, said, “This character sounds like Charles Dance’s Tivin, and it turns out that is a scene with him and Diana Rigg. It wasn’t until I had my first virtual meeting with the showrunners that I had any idea he was in it Game of Thrones universe.

I guess there’s a lot of confidence in auditioning for a role without having a clear idea of ​​what it is.

If you are a big star, then you get more information. But for those of us mere mortals…

…esteemed actors!

Yes, this is it! You have to go on who is involved. At this point I knew it was Ryan [J. Condal] and Miguel. I got relevant scenes and they tell you what will happen to your person during that time. Next, of course, is trust. I’ve done shows that I thought were just brilliant, but then they didn’t catch on.

Or movies, like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time…

lol! I was lucky because when I heard people talking [about the 2010 film’s whitewashing]I was the only one who came out of it with people like, “Yeah, he can be in this.”

So you benefited from the book, but did you use it?

George Martin sent us all signed copies of the book. I was about to read it, then I thought, no. What I have to present is what they wrote in the script, and they will take liberties with it for dramatic purposes. So I didn’t want to read his interpretation or know what happened to my character.

People sometimes forget that adaptation isn’t just copy and paste—you’re creating something for the screen. The very nature of being a black man in the role of Corlys Valerion changes things. So what can you tell us about your iteration?

They had just seen me in Steve McQueen [Small Axe] movie Red, white and blue, so what we discussed more than anything else was fatherhood. He’s this marine explorer, the richest man in the country, and he’s on the board and so on.

But at the end of the day, for me, his driving force is the fact that he’s trying to raise his family, raise his name. When his wife was passed over for the crown, he seemed to take it much more personally than she did. Ambition has been his driving force for most of the season.

Also, he’s not a Targaryen, so it feels like you’re an outsider trying to be accepted into the fold.

Yes, there is a scene with Matt [Smith] playing Damon, where I’m basically saying, “We’re the second sons; all these other people, wealth was given to them. You and I had to go out and make it. This is another bone of contention for him. Corliss had to go out and become a self-made man. He feels it very keenly.

Is that why he keeps his wits about him in the scene at the first council meeting when he is offered wine and refuses a refill?

This has happened a few times when people have asked, but it’s been a random thing. I’m glad I did it and people accepted it.

Game of Thrones has a built-in audience with memes and screenshots that are posted the moment an episode airs. Are you ready for the mayhem?

For most of this whole experience, I was optimistic about it. I spoke with Emma D’Arcy (Princess Rhaenyra). And they said, “I think you just take it easy.” I’m still aware that people need to see the show. It’s great that there are people who are excited. What was wonderful is that for every toxic person who somehow found their way into my timeline, there were so many others who were so supportive and said, “Oh my God, I can’t wait, this is going to be awesome!”

Even when we were doing certain scenes, there were supporting artists who would come in and say, “It’s great to have this performance.”

Yeah, it’s like when people get annoyed with diversity in period dramas. First, people of color existed in the past. Second, if you care more about the color of a person’s skin than the fact that everyone miraculously has wonderful teeth, that just shows your prejudice.

This is so true. So many people base their idea of ​​the history of this country on a few movies and other things made in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s that bear no resemblance to the truth. Historically, people of my color and your color, we didn’t just come here in the 70s or 60s. There was a time when the ruler of his country, “Caesar”, was an African. There are street names that tell you that even back then there were people in this country who looked like us, but for some reason it seems to be very hard for people to swallow. And as you said, they enjoy a flying dragon. They are happy with white hair and violet eyes, but a rich black man? This is beyond the limits.

So tell me about the look of your house. I love that you have white hair and your mixed kids have curly hair.

It was up to the boys before I even got there. The costume designer would send me sketches and the look would come down to, I guess, Ryan and Miguel. When they asked me to stop shaving, I was like, “Oh no!” I’m not a big fan of the beard, but it’s part of the look. It’s amazing. Even if the show doesn’t go well, I’ll look good and that’s what matters!

He is a sailor, how much time do we spend at sea?

The closest I got to the sea was during a battle that takes place on a beach. Our home was shot at a place called St. Michael’s Mount. It’s a stately home that you can only get to at certain times of the day because the tide comes in and you can’t get to it. It’s beautiful down there. We shot a bit in Cornwall but most of it was in the studio.

So with such a storied career, how did your back catalog of work prepare you for this grand endeavour?

I guess The Prince of Persia I did. It was the biggest budget thing I’ve ever had. But in terms of the amount of views on it, since it was announced, well, no, I’ve never had anything like it. Even when we did The Prince of Persia, I remember one day I asked the publicity guy, “Where does this place in what’s going on in the world right now?” He said, “Oh, it’s the biggest movie in the world right now.” But most of the world, they’re just like, oh, there’s a big movie coming out. With that, the moment they announced it was like, “Oh my God.”

Social media was also not that popular back then.

I’m not used to this before. But work is work, you still have to learn the lines, you still have to try to sound convincing when you say things and make sure you don’t bump into the furniture. You try to hold it back.

What do you think The house of the dragon has anything to say about the world?

A TV show or movie, wherever it is filmed, reflects the time in which it was made. One of the criticisms of Thronesespecially in the early seasons, was that there was a sense of exploitation, especially for the women.

I’ve never met Emilia Clarke, but I’ve read things she’s said and how she’s been able to establish herself more over the seasons. In the beginning, you just see all sorts of things happening to her. I hope in [House of the Dragon] comes across the importance of having other voices in the room. The fact that we have female directors and female writers, there’s less exploitative stuff. There is violence and sex, but the heart of it is the conflict between two ladies [Princess Rhaenyra and her friend Alicent Hightower]. Whether this reflects the increasing status and power of women in our society, I don’t know. It’s about relationships after all. Still, it’s about people trying to maneuver. After all, it’s about whose eyes you look into when you speak. I guess I’ll have to watch it all and then get back to you.