House of the Dragon’s Emma D’Arcy initially thought the series was a Game of Thrones ripoff

Ever since its announcement back in 2019, Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon has been a major source of excitement for fantasy fans all over the world. According to George R. R. Martin himself, the first season of the show is looking very good, and he has watched a number of episodes. We have already seen a lot of leaks over the past few months, and HBO has already scheduled the release date, that is, August 21.  However, back when the show was just announced, there wasn’t much awareness about its lore. Even the show’s lead Emma D’Arcy admitted they initially thought it was a Game of Thrones ripoff, not a spinoff.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, D’Arcy talked about their audition for House of The Dragon. The actor recalled whipping up a “very speedy audition tape” in the middle of the pandemic for what they thought was “a Game of Thrones rip-off” — and not an actual Game of Thrones prequel series.

D’Arcy recorded themself on an iPhone and sent the video off to the showrunners. They went through rounds after rounds of taped auditions, and eventually a virtual conversation with showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, where the duo asked if D’Arcy owned a wig. D’Arcy remembers replying, “Do I look like I own a wig?”

“All I had were some hair extensions left over from a job. No way of attaching them to me, no idea how to do that,” D’Arcy recalls. “For 24 hours, me and my partner just tried — I can’t put more emphasis behind that word. My hair was about as long as it is now. We hot glued these hair extensions to these wig grips. We would send photos to Miguel, and we thought we’d cracked it. And he said, ‘Can you keep trying?'”

“We kept trying until we found something that gave me the illusion I had long hair. And then, every time we taped after that, I would sit in front of the telly, and my partner would do my hair extensions for an hour and a half before we taped anything.” 

What do you think of Rhaenyra Targaryen’s look in House of The Dragon? Tell us in the comments below!