King Viserys Targaryen was brilliantly portrayed by Paddy Considine in House of the Dragon. Anyone who watched the first season of the show could see the King’s suffering and emotions as he lay on his deathbed. Fans were brought to tears by his portrayal, and George R. R. Martin declared that it was even better than his version in the books.

Getting acknowledged by George R.R. Martin was the biggest compliment for Paddy Considine

In a recent interview with Deadline, Paddy Considine recalled getting complimented by Martin, and said, “His words to me were you played Viserys better than he ever imagined. Your Viserys is better than my Viserys. To get a nod from a creator like that, for him to say that he wants to go back and rewrite Viserys history, that’s really flattering.”

Paddy Considine feels jealous about not making it to Season 2

Though Viserys died at the end of Season 1, Considine wishes he could have been there more. He admitted:

“There was a bit of jealousy when Season 2 started filming and I wasn’t part of it anymore. But at least I made an impact.”

Viserys was like a modern politician

Showrunner Ryan Condal, said this about Viserys in the same interview, “We started with the desire to portray this very complicated character who we always said was a really good man but was not a good king. The reason for that is because he’s actually quite a modern politician.”

“He’s not quick to move. He takes consensus. He finds the middle often. Those aren’t qualities that work in a feudal medieval society. They are things we look for in our contemporary leaders. We were really excited to populate this world with a character like that. There’s a certain weakness seen in that.”

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