Note: This story contains spoilers from “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Episode 6.
“House of the Dragon” Season 2 Episode 6 ended with an intimate moment between Queen Rhaenyra and Lady Mysaria that star Sonoya Mizuno says wasn’t initially in the script.
As the immediacy of dragon warfare set in after the brutal events of Rook’s Rest, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) leaned on Mysaria (Mizuno) as a trusted confidant, who assured her she is meant to be queen. After Mysaria opened up to Rhaenyra about her traumatic past, the pair embraced and, in a heated and emotional moment, the hug turned into a passionate kiss.
“It wasn’t scripted as a kiss. I think it was scripted as … there’s just breath between them or something, and then whatever happens is interrupted,” Mizuno told TheWrap, adding that she, D’Arcy and showrunner Ryan Condal had “many conversations” across months with everyone on board about where the story was going. It was D’Arcy who suggested how the scene could play out.
“Because we were separate in the room … [and] Mysaria has told this story, [D’Arcy] felt the instinct to hold her, to comfort her,” she added. “From that, it felt so organic to go into the kiss.”
While Mizuno noted she and D’Arcy wanted to avoid the kiss to feel “queer-baity in any sense,” the actress noted the intimacy of their hug made their kiss feel “emotionally so right.”
“I don’t think either of them have been hugged like that in a long time, if not ever,” Mizuno said, adding that maybe Mysaria received such love as a small child from her mother. “I think it was the hug — the intimate vulnerability of that hug — which which morphed into this very tender and passionate kiss, which was quite … amazing. I think it’s very thrilling in the moment for both of them.”
Below, Mizuno revealed how Mysaria’s history with Daemon impacts her relationship with Rhaenyra, how she prepared for her character’s emotional monologue and if she thinks Mysaria’s intentions are pure.
TheWrap: At the end of the episode, Mysaria opens up to Rhearnya about the abuse she suffered. How did you work to craft this vulnerable moment, especially as your character typically seems so self assured?
Mizuno: When you’ve been through really horrific things in your deep past, you are able to, or the only way maybe you are able to talk about them is with a level of subdued emotion. There was definitely that idea of it not feeling in any way manipulative, but this is a statement of fact. This is what happened to me, and this is why I don’t trust people, and this is the sort of thing that happens to all sorts of small folk, and this is why they don’t trust people. This is why we need you. It was very much about not making it about Mysaria, but making it about Rhaenyra, because it’s it’s still a rally for her, it’s still Mysaria campaigning for Rhaenyra.
At this point Rhaenyra is so frustrated of hearing about Daemon. How does Mysaria’s history with Daemon impact her relationship with Rhaenyra?
We would kind of discuss it as though it was two women who had the same ex-boyfriend, and they’d be like, “oh, yeah, when he does that thing …” and then it brings them closer together. It’s a nice journey that they’ve gone on from when Rhaenyra realizes she has history with Daemon to this moment where they can speak about Daemon and find the common ground there. It helps them work together.
Does Mysaria think they need Daemon to succeed or is she just kindly comforting Rhaenyra?
I see her as an opportunist, not in a pejorative sense, but this is the situation right now … Daemon’s f—ed off to Harrenhal, and God knows what he’s up to — let’s deal with what we’ve got right now. I think she’s trying to pull Rhaenyra back to them.
Do you think Mysaria has genuine feelings for Rhaenyra, or were they just bonding over their shared trauma and pain in wartime?
Rhaenyra is quite amazing. I think it’s hard not to have feelings for Rhaenyra, to be honest. I don’t think it was anything Mysaria had plotted it … how could she not be attracted to Rhaenyra?
Even though Corlys has been named Rhaenyra’s hand, Mysaria seems to be serving as her closest advisor. How do you understand Mysaria’s role as an advisor to Rhaenyra this season?
There’s a line that Rhaenyra says in Episode 5, which is something like this path has never been trod, or something like that, and I think that speaks so beautifully to their relationship in part because they’re both women, but also because she doesn’t have an official title. When I first signed on for the job, they would kind of talk as of Mysaria as a Varys type of character, like a Mistress of Whisperers. I do like the idea of these two women as people who we’ve not seen in these positions before.
Why do you think Mysaria gained Rhaenyra’s trust?
When these women both meet each other, they have a preconceived idea of who the other one is and they are. They feel like they are so different to the other, but they do approach each other from the offset a kind of frankness, I think, is just rare in this world. I think for both of them, what they grew to grow to understand about each other is they do have a lot of similarities, and they are both these women who have fought and fought in this patriarchal society and they are undoubtedly outsiders of their own rights, and they have more in common than not, and they also have empathy. When you are an emotional, intelligent person, you pick it up in another person and there aren’t that many people in this world who seem to hold emotional intelligence as something good.
Do you think her intentions are pure? What’s driving her to help Rhaenyra’s cause?
I find this question difficult to answer, because I know what I think, but at some point I feel like, once my job is done, the thing comes out, I really think that people can have their own opinions on what her motives are. From Mysaria’s point of view, she is fighting for the small folk. That’s really what she believes and what she has to believe, because there’s no other choice, actually,
What can you tease about how we see their relationship evolve more and where Mysaria’s arc goes?
What I will say is that there is a huge war brewing so feelings and sexy times aren’t really the priority.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
New episodes of “House of the Dragon” air Sundays on HBO and stream on Max.
