Spoilers: House of the Dragon season two’s third episode featured an NSFW scene featuring Prince Aemond Targaryen (portrayed by Ewan Mitchell) that completely floored viewers. Amid the thirst traps that have been circulating on social media, it has now been revealed that the actor went “au naturel” for the series.
The episode, which premiered on HBO on June 30, showed Prince Aemond completely stripping off in a King’s Landing brothel.
The dragonrider gets subsequently caught by King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), who walks in on him being held by a brothel worker.
The scene reportedly marked the first full frontal nude scene in House of the Dragon, leaving certain fans all flustered, as a person wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter): “Fully nude Aemond Targaryen… bring on the fanfics.”
Spoilers: House of the Dragon season two’s third episode featured an NSFW scene
Image credits: HBO
An Instagram fan page even wrote in their biography description: “Ewan Mitchell can run me over, respectfully.”
And to make matters raunchier, recent reports have revealed that the 27-year-old actor wasn’t even wearing a prosthetic for the scene.
In an interview published on June 30 by Variety, House of the Dragon director Geeta Patel revealed that it was Ewan’s idea to strip back completely.
“Ewan is such a great actor,” Geeta said. “He understands what he needs to do in order to portray Aemond.”
Image credits: Karwai Tang/WireImage
She continued: “When I spoke with him originally about the nudity, I said to him, ‘Let’s just go through the story.
“‘If you don’t feel comfortable being nude, then you’re not going to be nude.’”
After discussing the scene with his director, Ewan made the decision to highlight his character’s vulnerability.
The 48-year-old screenwriter explained: “He created the persona of someone who is callous and has no regard for what others think of him.”
The scene featuring Prince Aemond Targaryen (portrayed by Ewan Mitchell) completely floored viewers
Image credits: HBO
“That shift, from someone who’s vulnerable to literally watching him put on his armor, was what we were going for in that scene.”
Geeta continued: “It’s one of the few times you see the young child in him and you see the pain in him.
“Slowly he starts putting on his armor and when he stands up, the fact that he doesn’t care that you see his penis is such a strong visceral shift.
“And so, of course, Ewan was like, ‘I want to be fully nude in that moment.’”
Image credits: Max
“‘It’s important to me because that’s who my character is. That’s what he would do.’ And that’s what we did.”
In a separate interview with Vulture, published on June 30, The Last Kingdom star reacted to some of the thirst traps that have been shared on social media, saying: “Well, I’m not on social media, so I can’t really see those fan pages.”
Ewan went on to say of his brothel scene: “Scenes like this start with a conversation about how far you’re prepared to go.
“It wasn’t a choice we made lightly.”
Amid the thirst traps that have been circulating on social media, it has now been revealed that the actor went “au naturel” for the series
Image credits: HBO
“But it’s true to Aemond that he shocks the audience.
“Weakness is not part of Aemond’s vocabulary.”
According to Backstage, actors often wear prosthetics for nude scenes to maintain privacy, create a comfortable working environment, and avoid potential legal issues.
Prosthetics allow actors to perform intimate scenes without exposing themselves fully. Additionally, they can be used to maintain continuity and avoid the need for body doubles.
Image credits: HBO
As Eric Dane explained to Entertainment Weekly in June 2019: “Those scenes are very difficult to shoot.
“It helps to have one voice in your ear.
“One voice that you can express your feelings to, and somebody that is an advocate for the actors.”
At the time, the 51-year-old actor played Cal Jacobs in Euphoria. During the series’ pilot episode, Cal was seen meeting up with an underage Jules (Hunter Schafer) after talking on a dating app.
The episode, which premiered on HBO on June 30, showed Prince Aemond completely stripping off in a King’s Landing brothel
Image credits: Max
Despite not being opposed to nudity, Eric explained that it was a group decision for him to wear a prosthetic penis for his nude scene with Hunter.
The Grey’s Anatomy star said: “It just simplifies a lot of things and makes for a safe and comfortable environment while shooting something that is fairly uncomfortable to shoot.
“And certainly, the stuff that we did in the pilot is no exception. It’s a pretty intense scene.”
As per Jason Collins, who owns Autonomous F/X, which has produced special makeup and character effects for projects including Westworld, The Affair, and Mindhunter, creating prosthetic penises for actors involves a detailed and meticulous process.
@entertainment_weekly #EricDane’s new prosthetic penis actually pees! 🤣 #Euphoria #CalEuphoria #CalEuphoriaEdit #JacobElordi ♬ original sound – Entertainment WeeklyThe process typically starts with a cast of the actor’s groin area, but not their actual genitalia, to ensure the prosthetic fits seamlessly, Jason explained in a 2022 Allure article.
Made from silicone with varying amounts of plasticizer for flexibility, these prosthetics are customized or chosen from pre-made molds, then they are glued or strapped on and blended with makeup.
For productions that do not require a customized prosthetic, Jason said he had approximately 12 different penis molds to which details like veins could later be added.
He said: “Unless something is specifically indicated somewhere or an actor may feel like, ‘I want my penis to look like this,’ there’s no real reason to get into sculpting more and more penises.
“You could have 20 or 30 molds, but at the end of the day, you’re gonna see it for a few frames. A penis is a penis is a penis.”