The actor from “The Last Kingdom” and “Dark Tower” talks candidly with EW about his role as the Lord of Winterfell in “House of the Dragon” season 2.
Tom Taylor is feeling the weight of his role as Cregan Stark in season 2 of House of the Dragon, both literally and figuratively.
“It’s heavy,” the 22-year-old actor, who starred in The Dark Tower and The Last Kingdom, remarks to Entertainment Weekly about the leather outfit he dons to play the current Lord of Winterfell in the prequel to Game of Thrones. “It was also quite warm. It was sweltering in England, with temperatures between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius. However, I was astounded. I was cool. To be honest, I did felt a little bit like a mobster.”Playing Cregan Stark in House of the Dragon season two weighs heavily on Tom Taylor, both in a proverbial sense and a quite literal one.
The second season premiere of House of the Dragon, which airs on HBO and streams on Max Sunday, June 16, features Taylor’s Cregan (pronounced “kray-gan”), who was formerly known as the Wolf of the North. Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) sends her son Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) to Winterfell to negotiate with Cregan and win the North’s support for their side in the Targaryen civil war, also known as the Dance of the Dragons.
Taylor, who plays an ancestor of HBO’s Game of Thrones characters Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington), says he drew inspiration from these characters. “I did use Sean Bean a lot,” he admits. “He’s Sean Bean’s great, great, great, great-granddad, so for some reason, I felt like I had to. I desired for him to exude the same aura because voice conveys so much. You can hear the burden on each of their shoulders as they talk.”
Using sides that referred to his character as just “CS” for an unidentified project called Red Gun—the frequently used code name for House of the Dragon—Taylor went on audition for the position at the beginning of 2023. He didn’t meet with producers for several months, including co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal and Game of Thrones veteran executive producer Alan Taylor, who is directing the show’s second season premiere episode. According to the actor, “I think they were quite surprised with my accent,” regarding the exchange. “I suppose it wouldn’t be happening if I couldn’t pull off the accent. Making sure Cregan’s tone was appropriate was crucial in order to prevent his words from sounding cheesy Many of the words are nearly Shakespearean.
All of his pals, who are ardent fans of Game of Thrones, were overjoyed when he was ultimately cast. Taylor found it significant as well, mentioning a bond he had with the character. Manchester is where his father’s side of the family was raised. “They’re all Northmen, if you like,” he says, “that kind of rough ’round the edges, Northern love.”
