House of the Dragon: Matt Smith Says "You Have to Take the Modern-Day Morality Away" About the Sex Scenes

The season finale of House of the Dragon is mere hours away, and fans are eager to see how the first season will wrap up. A fan-favorite character in the Game of Thrones prequel series has been Matt Smith's Daemon Targaryen who had some questionable encounters with his young niece Rhaenyra Targaryen (previously Milly Alcock, now Emma D'Arcy) before marrying her. However, fans learned back in the Game of Thrones days that Targaryens wed each other all the time, and it's become pretty commonplace to see these types of relationships unfold in Westeros. In fact, many fans have found themselves shipping the couple. Recently Smith spoke with the Los Angeles Times and was asked about filming his sex scenes for House of the Dragon. 

"Ick factor?" Smith said. "It's hard. You're constantly questioning it. But you have to take the modern-day morality away. It's a different time. It's a story, and the story requires that these two characters do that. So you do it." He added, "But I think we were lucky with Clare Kilner, the director [of King of the Narrow Sea]. She handled the sex scenes as well as I've seen them handled."

How Did Milly Alcock Feel About Her Big Scene With Matt Smith?

During an interview with the New York Post, Alcock talked about filming the "gnarly" brothel scene. 

"No, strangely enough. [Matt Smith and I] were just kind of mates," Alcock explained when asked if filming the scene was awkward. "So, it was quite comfortable ... We had an intimacy coordinator, and we worked with her through the rehearsal process and blocked it out months before." She added, "Clare Kilner, our director, made sure that we hadn't seen any of the brothel stuff until we were shooting ... So, that was our first time walking through the brothel, and he's guiding her through the room with all of these other bodies. So, that was quite shocking. You're like, 'This is kind of weird and silly.'"

Alcock added, "There were extras who we had just met who were like, 69-ing for 12 hours ... It's pretty gnarly. We felt pretty overdressed because everyone else was nude." She explained, "Rhaenyra is at an age where she can't tell the difference between platonic love, romantic love, and lust because she hasn't lived long enough and gone through those experiences ... I think that she understands that there's a feeling here [with Daemon], but she's not quite sure where it lands, and how to behave with it and navigate it."

The season finale of House of the Dragon drops on HBO and HBO Max tonight at 9 PM ET.