‘House of the Dragon’: Elliott and Luke Tittensor on that brutal duel
This interview contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 2 of ‘House of the Dragon’.
“One soul in two bodies.” That’s what Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor), a sworn member of Aegon II Targaryen’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) Kingsguard, calls himself and his identical twin brother, Erryk (Elliott Tittensor). But Ser Erryk is now a member of the Queensguardknights dedicated to the service of Aegon’s half-sister and rival for the Iron Throne, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). This week’s episode brings their lifelong union to a bloody end.
In Episode 2 of Season 2 of “House of the Dragon,” Arryk is sent by his vengeful commander, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), to infiltrate Rhaenyra’s stronghold, Dragonstone, and kill her while posing as his own twin brother, one of her personal siblings. protectors. The ruse is gruesomely exposed when brother attacks brother; Erryk triumphs and saves his queen, but commits suicide rather than live with the pain of the act. As an allegory for the senseless waste of human life in Rhaenyra and Aegon’s so-called Dance of the Dragons, it’s hard to miss.
But when it comes time to thank the actors for the chance to rack their brains over their brutal final duel over the fate of Queen Rhaenyra, I find myself referring to their brainsingular. It speaks to the effectiveness of the Tittensor twins’ work as the doomed knights who appeal to their “one soul in two bodies” mentality.
The brothers, however, are modest about landing these pivotal roles. “I’m not sure how big the pool of identical twins they had to look at was, but when our agents came in for the job, we already had the long hair and beards,” Elliott said in a joint video call on Thursday. “In their eyes, we were pretty much ready to go.”
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
I’m never quite sure whether to offer congratulations or condolences in interviews like this.
LUKE TITTENSOR We are happy! To be involved in such a project, and then to be able to portray a twin relationship in such a wonderful world, a world that we are fans of… These kinds of jobs in this sector are rare.
How early did you know this was where your characters were going?
ELLIOTT TITTENSOR When we got the job, we researched the material until we died. We didn’t want to go any further just because we didn’t want to spoil the rest of the show.
LUKE We did some research, perhaps starting with the conquest of Aegon ——
ELLIOTT And then to our point. After that, we wanted to leave it a bit of a mystery, right?
“House of the Dragon” is a civil war story, and civil wars are often described as wars of brother against brother. Your characters make that theme literal.
LUKE Our relationship and our death were a symbol not only of what is to come, but actually of the theme of the entire play: family against family.
Does taking on that symbolic weight add more pressure?
ELLIOTT No, because that symbol was built naturally in our relationship, as identical twins. That is a unique relationship — unique for identical twins, who are split embryos. Even twins who are not split embryos … not to sound disrespectful, but they are more like a brother and sister who were born at the same time. Identical twins are a beautiful natural phenomenon.
But you play identical twins who catch each other in the act.
LUKE I think it helps. You know what they’re up against because of all the years they’ve been twins. If that was a scene between me and Criston Cole, it would probably be a little more difficult. Doing it with Elliott made it easier to get there and be in that frame of mind. It’s naturally grounded, something you can cling to.
ELLIOTT It is already ingrained in your psyche. But it wasn’t something like that drained the psyche too much because the scene lasted three days, and the emotional side was the last day. You definitely feel the baggage of something like that, so it was nice that the really extreme stuff was limited to just one day.
What was the physical process of the fight like?
ELLIOTT For the fight dance, we worked with the stunt team for over 30 hours to make sure we got it right. We wanted to make sure we could do everything and not have to use the team for shots because we knew the emotional side would come through. It just focused on making sure the dance was good.
You call it a dance, but it looks like two people hacking each other with sharp metal sticks until one of them can’t move anymore. It’s brutal.
LUKAS Our swords have brass knuckles on them, so you can’t really do a lot of nice twists and spins like a really slick swordsman. That made us think that these are guys who are a bit heavy with their swords, who get up close and personal. Us and Rowley and Ben [Rowley Irlam and Ben Wright, two of the show’s stunt coordinators] we tailored the fight to how we thought these two guys would fight. They wanted to make it feel ——
ELLIOTT More realistic.
LUKAS Like two brothers fighting at home: a little rough, a little dirty, a little messy. Rhaenyra is locked in a cage with two lions who try to tear each other down.
In the shadowy scene leading up to the assassination attempt and the duel, the similarities between the brothers create tension.
LUKAS What [the filmmakers] what we were trying to do narratively confused the audience. When Arryk is at the door, there’s a moment where you think, “Is that actually Arryk, or is it Erryk?” You’ve seen us do a bit of a Scooby-Doo moment. That’s a bit of a trick with twins.
But in the end, being brothers doesn’t save or damn them. Their sense of duty and honor drive them and ultimately kill them.
LUKE When the Kingsguard take that oath, they agree to have no women or property—they essentially give up their rights and freedoms. It’s a position that requires great sacrifice, and it also takes a certain type of person to actually want that job. They’re like a military order sworn to the church to go on crusades. Erryk and Arryk take this very seriously.
ELLIOTT There is a beauty in the polarities of that archetype. There is the loyalty and sacrifice of a hero, but the downside — I mean to the extreme — is that you are so blinded to your feelings by your oath and your honor that you will kill your own brother. [The twins] shows the negative side of what could be considered a positive trait. A double-edged sword, isn’t it?
