'House of the Dragon' Actor on Their Character's Major Death, If They Knew It Was Happening, & More

There was a major character death on last night’s House of the Dragon on HBO’s Max.

Spoilers ahead for the episode, so if you have not watched, don’t continue reading!

Keep reading to find out more…

Eve Best‘s Princess Rhaenys Targaryen died during a fight between Meleys, Vhagar, and Sunfyre.

On her character’s plunge to her death and putting her arms up the way she did, Eve shared, “It was my call. I think they wanted a moment of hanging on and then letting go. It felt like a very natural thing, actually. It was sort of a peaceful moment after all that. When we were shooting it, there was a lot of buildup.”

She continued, “It happened to be the last thing that I shot. We were doing that whole sequence at the end of the shoot. It was a special day and then [showrunner] Ryan Condal came in and gave a speech. It was so lovely. But it was pressure. I was like, ‘please don’t make me cry now. I’ve got to just get on and shoot this very significant piece of film.’ Anyway, it was a long buildup because they had to prep the camera for this move, which was quite complicated. I had a lot of time and I was getting more and more nervous. And we did it in two takes! I was like, ‘no, what?’ And the director was like, ‘no, that’s great. I’m happy.’ She lets go literally and spiritually. It was a real surrender.”

She then was asked if she knew all along that her character would die in season two. She told Deadline, “Yeah, we knew. It was in my contract that I was only there for two seasons. So we always knew that it was going to be finite. It’s sort of the nature of the beast, really. If you sign up for this franchise, there is a very strong likelihood that you will come to a sick end at some point. I just didn’t know the exact details of when, but I knew that it was on a dragon.”

If you’re a big fan of the show, you’ll be thrilled by this news!