Rhys Ifans Had A Habit Of Ruining Takes On The House Of The Dragon Set
The following post contains spoilers for "House of the Dragon."
Otto Hightower, played by Rhys Ifans ("The King's Man," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part I"), is a manipulative jerk who pimps out his daughter to gain power for himself. He's cruel and twisty in his machinations and spares no one in his pursuit of what he wants. The man rarely cracks a smile outside of a smirk behind the backs of people he's screwing over or a pleasant tiny one to keep up appearances. "House of the Dragon" is full of death, destruction, incest, a foot fetish, intense birth scenes, and the removal of a child's eyeball. It isn't exactly a comedy. But that doesn't mean that the cast didn't have fun and a barrel of laughs on the set of the HBO series.
Cast members often try to lighten the mood with pranks, like the moment on "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" when Alan Rickman (Snape), Michael Gambon (Dumbledore), and director Alfonso Cuarón put a fart machine in Daniel Radcliffe's (Harry Potter) sleeping bag in a scene where he'd been placed next to a girl Radcliffe was crushing on. There always seems to be a prankster in any given cast. As it turns out, Rhys Ifans is the culprit on the "House of the Dragon" set, at least according to BBC Radio 1's interview with the show's cast (via Yahoo). In fact, he was disruptive enough that there were times when he even found himself being kicked off-set.
'Tell you who he moves like; the Grinch'
Milly Alcock, who plays young Rhaenyra Targaryen, said of Rhy Ifans' on-set silliness, "He didn't need to [say anything]. Rhys Ifans has a certain twinkle under his eye." Emily Carey, who plays the young version of Otto's daughter Alicent, noted, "It's just a look he gives you. Or he nudges; he loves doing that in scenes. If something goes slightly wrong he'll just start nudging."
If that's not distracting enough, Alcock added, "Tell you who he moves like; the Grinch." Given Ifans' previous work, like when he played Spike in "Notting Hill," it's not hard to imagine him as the cast member trying to make the other actors crack.
It gets wilder, though. Fabien Frankel, who plays Ser Criston Cole, said that Ifans would not only nudge people, he would "scream obscenities on your close-ups so that you could uncontrollably laugh during your takes." Not only that, but it got so "bad" that the show's directors would have to ask Ifans to leave the set so they could get the shot.
Even megastar Julia Roberts was not immune to his silliness, as she once noted during a press junket interview for "Notting Hill:"
"It's really hard to work with Rhys, man, because I had to be straight-faced all the time. And it's one thing, the challenge of being straight-faced around Hugh (Grant), which after I while I just sort of got good at — I became determined ... but with Rhys it's nearly impossible not to just fall out of your chair, because he's so funny and he's so outrageous."
The show may be dark, but it sounds like the set (and any set with Ifans) was a blast.
"House of the Dragon" is currently streaming on HBO Max.