‘House of the Dragon’ star addresses if they’re really as mad as everyone thinks

If you’ve somehow found yourself thinking that Larys Strong might be a bit unhinged around the edges, you’re not the only one. But as far as Matthew Needham is concerned, you definitely need to have a little bit of madness in you to play the dangerous game Clubfoot is playing in House of the Dragon.

After killing his father and brother in cold blood and inheriting Harrenhal, Larys could be seen during last night’s episode eyeing Queen Alicent sort of longingly, for lack of a better word. And in view of everyone, no less, making fans wonder if the guy is actually as insane as he is sinister. But according to what Clubfoot’s actor tells Entertainment Weekly, there’s nothing romantic going on between the two characters.

“I don’t think he’s mad. What I love about that scene and what I love doing with Olivia is, as much as it’s a power move and it’s him putting her squarely in his pocket, as it were, there’s also an element of the game. ‘I will do all this, I will get all this blood on my hands, and you are able to plead naivety.’

“I wouldn’t say it’s romantic, but there’s an underlying… it’s not erotic, but there’s some sort of frisson there for Larys. She gets to say, ‘I didn’t want this,’ and I know she did. So that’s what I thought I was going for in those scenes. But I obviously just look mad. Maybe I’m just mad, I don’t know.”

It’s unclear what the Clubfoot will do next, but given the fact that he’s achieved his personal vendetta against his father and brother, he may decide to throw in his lot with Alicent and remain by her side to the bitter end. Alicent herself is now all in too, so she may find it easier to appetite Larys’ grotesque methods.

Whatever the outcome of this reluctant alliance, at least it’s clear where each of the characters stands now. Unless the Clubfoot decides to change teams during the Dance of Dragons, though given the fact that he killed the father of Rhaenyra’s children, that twist sounds as unlikely a narrative development as any we’ve heard in the world of Westerosi politics.