The Witch Queen of Harrenhal: “House of the Dragon” star Gayle Rankin discusses the enigmatic Alys Rivers
"She's going to hold a lot of power for the men inside of this story, especially Daemon," the Tony nominee tells EW.
Warning: This article contains spoilers from House of the Dragon season 2, episode 3.
In 2018, Gayle Rankin, the actress from GLOW who was more recently nominated for a Tony for Broadway's Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, revealed her dream part in an interview with ContentMode. "A Scottish sorceress, Queen in the 1600s," she said. Well, her role on House of the Dragon season 2 comes pretty darn close.
Rankin officially arrives as Alys Rivers, a character that continues the grand tradition of mysterious magical women in the universe of Game of Thrones, like the Red Priestess Melisandre (Carice van Houten) and woods witch Maggy the Frog (Jodhi May). "I'm really obsessed with pagan power. I'm a Celtic woman. I have that in my blood," Rankin tells Entertainment Weekly of stepping into the role. "I just want to be riding a horse, but maybe I'll end up riding a dragon. Consolation prize."
Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) arrives at Harrenhal where he first lays eyes on Alys in episode 3 of the current season. The castle alone, the largest in the Riverlands, is said to be haunted ever since Aegon the Conqueror's dragon, Balerion "the Black Dread," scorched the earth long ago and left the fortress half in ruins. Whether that cursed nature is true is lost to history, but as soon as Daemon sets foot on the grounds, he begins hearing strange voices and seeing even stranger visions. Alys appears in one of them: facing Daemon before a weirwood tree, she ominously intones, "You will die in this place."
Ollie Upton/HBO Gayle Rankin's Alys Rivers on 'House of the Dragon' season 2
"On House of the Dragon, we have dragons, obviously, but she's the first entry point to that world of magic," Rankin says.
The actress, known for playing eccentric characters like Sheila the She-Wolf on GLOW and Ruthie Nodd in Bad Things, quickly fell in love with Alys Rivers when she got the part. Alys' nickname, "the Witch Queen of Harrenhal" from George R.R. Martin's book Fire and Blood, stuck with her. "That made me excited," she says. "I was definitely carrying that energy with me."
In the text, no one definitively knows Alys' true age. Some say she is a bastard child of the late Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes), which would make her a half-sister to Larys "Clubfoot" (Matthew Needham). Some say she's a woods witch who "bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth." (Rankin held onto that detail, as well.) It is widely agreed, however, that she's been a wet nurse to children at Harrenhal over the years and that she also has prophetic visions.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Gayle Rankin at the red carpet of the 2024 Tony Awards.
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"I'm not totally sure what I'm allowed to share, but I too was intrigued and excited about how open the character was," Rankin says. "I really love the challenge of a woman being recounted as some people say this and some people say this. I'm always fascinated by and drawn to female characters who are tossed around by society and culture. I really tried personally to make her my own and ground her in reality, because you can stereotype someone who's a healer or a sorcerer or a witch or any of the above."
She worked with series co-creator Ryan Condal and her episodic directors, like Geeta Patel and Clare Kilner, to figure out what Alys wants in the story of House of the Dragon. It's clear Martin intentionally wrote the original character to be enigmatic, and there are too many open-ended questions to count. That task proved to be an on-going project, she says.
"This person can tell the future, basically," Rankin continues. "She's someone who has all of this power, who's been alive for potentially 400 years. How do we make her a person with a beating heart and wants and desires? I hope that's felt inside of our exploration with her. They've done such a wonderful job by giving these characters, especially the female characters, a 360 experience, which isn't always the case, instead of these really patriarchal stories."
HBO Matt Smith's Daemon Targaryen on 'House of the Dragon' season 2
Though Alys only appears briefly in episode 3, she will no doubt be a recurring presence on the season. That includes unraveling Daemon and forcing the Targaryen prince to face the demons of his past. "She's going to hold a lot of power for the men inside of this story, especially Daemon, which I think is a really interesting slow burn," the actress teases. Rankin knows fans of Fire and Blood are eagerly awaiting Alys' interactions with a certain other Targaryen, but first, "What's interesting is, what does Alys want from Daemon and vice versa?" Rankin adds. "What are they learning from each other? There's clearly a match happening here."
At the very least, we can safely surmise that if Sheila the She-Wolf were around in the year 2024, she would most certainly be watching House of the Dragon every Sunday night to see Alys Rivers.
"Truth! Never truer words. I mostly do everything with that in mind. That's how I picked my role: 'Would Sheila watch this?'" Rankin jokes. "They're certainly not connected in any way. The roles I play are so vastly different, but there's a cult kind of obsession I have especially with the underdog or someone who is on a f---ing journey."
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.