Within the packed foyer of Leicester Sq.’s shiny Odeon cinema, Harry Collett is surrounded by concerned-looking individuals. Some are pointing, most are staring and some even specific condolences: “I’m so sorry.” He may very well be at a funeral for a beloved relative.
Allow us to clarify. Collett is an actor. For the previous 4 years, he’s performed dragon-riding prince Jacaerys Velaryon in HBO’s standard fantasy spin-off from Sport Of Thrones (you already know, the largest present in TV historical past), Home Of The Dragon. Tonight, we’re on the season three premiere in London – and the explanation friends appear nervous about Collett’s wellbeing is as a result of they’ve simply witnessed his very violent homicide on the finish of episode one’s epic naval setpiece The Battle Of The Gullet.
Sploshed into the ocean by a flying projectile, Jacaerys struggles to cease his scaly steed Vermax from drowning. Then, in a sometimes Westerosi shock-ending, 4 arrows spit out of the fog from close by ships and bury themselves in his torso. Queen Rhaenyra’s eldest male inheritor sinks beneath the waves because the viewers gasps – amongst whom are Collett’s shocked dad and mom.
“I waited to inform them [that I died] till we had been sitting on the premiere,” Collett reveals to NME two weeks later by way of Zoom, grinning. By the laptop computer display, we are able to see he’s having a well-earned relaxation on the mattress in his Stockholm resort room – the most recent cease in an intensive worldwide promotional tour. “Seeing their reactions on the day was unreal. My mum made a verbal ‘oh!’ and my dad pulled a face. I feel whenever you die in a present, it’s not usually as brutal as that…”
Collett’s amphibious demise scene (like an underwater model of Boromir’s Lord Of The Rings offing), was the fruits of a lot exhausting work. For 2 days straight in 2025, from 8am to 7pm, the soon-very-soggy 22-year-old was strapped to a motorised saddle on a Warner Bros’ lot at Leavesden Studios because it repeatedly raised and lowered him into an enormous tank of “actually chilly” water.
As most of you might be regular and haven’t tried to faux your personal demise by drowning, you received’t understand how exhausting it’s to do. All the air in your lungs and trapped in your garments causes you to drift fairly simply – which makes it exhausting to behave such as you’re being dragged all the way down to the depths. Not very real looking. “In order that they clipped me [to the saddle] and I truly went down [underwater] every time,” explains Collett. A workforce of scuba divers remained reassuringly shut at hand, able to step in ought to he (whelp) cease respiration. There was one other complication although.
“After I obtained out of the water, the medic ran over and was like, ‘It’s good to include me proper now,’” Collett remembers. “My fingers had turned blue and she or he thought I had hypothermia…” Fortunately, his fingers’ newly acquired icy tinge was not deadly – however the results of colored dye operating from Jacaerys’ driving gloves. “I’d worn them for the entire present, however clearly they weren’t made for water… For a second, I checked out my fingers and thought, ‘Oh no, that is dangerous. Perhaps I’m actually dying.’ They are saying that your pores and skin altering color is without doubt one of the final levels [of death]… Genuinely, I feel it put quite a lot of panic into individuals.” Collett pauses for a beat, earlier than deadpanning. “That was one in every of my funniest moments of filming, truly.”
Raised in smalltown Essex, Collett’s performing journey began from a younger age. He says he was a bubbly child who at all times “needed to carry out” for others. He confirmed an early aptitude for dancing – spurred on by an obsession with Michael Jackson – and at 10 years previous performed a younger Michael Bublé within the Canadian froth-popper’s tacky Christmas video for his duet with Idina Menzel, ‘Child, It’s Chilly Exterior’. This led to common movie and TV work all through his teenagers that meant he was usually absent from college – one thing his academics didn’t respect.
“I failed GCSE drama!” Collett gapes. Returning to his alma mater not too long ago to gather his youthful sister after class, he confronted the instructor. “I requested him: ‘Why did you fail me?’ And he mentioned: ‘Cos you had been by no means right here!’ Yeah, I used to be by no means there as a result of I used to be filming a film. I used to be doing it for actual!”
Home Of The Dragon didn’t rear its colossal head till 2020, when Collett was 17. He was invited to check out for a top-secret HBO sequence however had no thought what it was. He hadn’t watched Sport Of Thrones – its gratuitous intercourse, swearing and violence making it unsuitable for his age when it aired – and even when he had recognized his Winterfells from his Westerlands, the audition script modified all of the names and areas anyway.
“It was a scene with Rhaenyra and Lucerys, however they [replaced Rhaenyra with Lucerys’ brother, Collett’s character Jacaerys] and so they had been referred to as Jack and Luke,” he remembers. “We had been in a front room and I used to be telling Luke how he shouldn’t really feel upset about one thing.” Collett thought he did effectively, however the ready room was full of extra regal-looking sorts – all longhaired and muscly. “I didn’t assume I’d get it.”
Clearly, he did get it. And 6 years later, Jacaerys’ slow-burn character arc from timid Targaryen scion to headstrong adolescent warrior has revealed Collett to be a younger actor of unusual expertise. His future seems vivid, even when Jacaerys’ story ends (gruesomely) right here.
“I simply wish to attempt a great deal of various things,” he says, after we ask what may be subsequent. “I wish to do a play – and [in terms of screen jobs] I would like Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio-type roles the place you’ll be able to’t inform that they’re performing. I wish to be actually naturalistic about it.”
You may’t think about Pitt or DiCaprio being allowed to mingle with the friends as they exit a premiere. For now, although, that’s the place Collett is. Everybody within the foyer tonight could look nervous about him, however they shouldn’t be. The sky’s the restrict for this dragonrider.
‘Home Of The Dragon’ season three streams weekly on Mondays on HBO Max
