All clothes Alexander McQueen.
Ewan Mitchell is ready to play the good guy for once. Unfortunately, the actor is just too convincing as a bad seed, whether it’s as the patently evil, power-hungry Prince Aemond Targaryen in House of the Dragon, or the ill-tempered servant Joseph in Emerald Fennel’s Wuthering Heights. But while Mitchell is itching to show off his range, he’s also thrilled at how his career has so naturally unfolded before him, bringing him exactly the right challenges at the right time. Stealing a moment away together on set, the actor and his Fonda co-star, Odessa A’zion, chatted about meeting on horseback, starting a podcast, wearing wigs, and how A’zion came to realize that Mitchell is actually her uncle.
THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2026, LONDON
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ODESSA A’ZION: …Uncle.
EWAN MITCHELL: Do you need your water?
A’ZION: My water?
MITCHELL: Get your water. Remember to hydrate in this weather, man.
A’ZION: So yesterday was what? 106 degrees, 107?
MITCHELL: For you, Fahrenheit, but for me it was 43.
A’ZION: I’ve never felt so sticky in my life, dude. How do you feel heat-wise right now?
MITCHELL: Fuck, man, I’m sweating cobs. It’s not so much the heat, it’s the bites. I’ve been eaten alive, man.
A’ZION: The bites are gnarly, and my clothes are sticking to me. I’m wearing that thermal shirt and you’re wearing the jacket.
MITCHELL: Yeah, man. Let’s not spoil it.
A’ZION: So messed up.
MITCHELL: But yeah, they just love my blood. They love my fucking blood.
A’ZION: So they want us to talk about how we met. Do you remember the first time that we met?
MITCHELL: Makeup tent.
A’ZION: Is it?
MITCHELL: Yeah, I’m sure it was in passing. I was like, “Oh shit, Rocky. And you were like, “Hey, this is Rocky. I’m Odessa.”
A’ZION: Wait, Rocky. Did you meet Rocky before me?
MITCHELL: I think I met Rocky first, then you after.
A’ZION: And then we really got to know each other well on the horseback riding day.
MITCHELL: Fuck yeah.
A’ZION: I don’t know why, but for some reason all of a sudden you turned into Uncle. I don’t remember the moment or why it happened, but…
MITCHELL: I’ve never had a nickname on set before.
A’ZION: And all of a sudden, you’re just known here as Uncle by everyone.
MITCHELL: I know, I fucking love it.
A’ZION: Very proud of that nickname.
MITCHELL: I’ve got a feeling I’m not going to be able to shake that nickname on every job going forward.
A’ZION: That’s mother fucking right, bitch.
MITCHELL: But yeah, thank you for doing this as well.
A’ZION: Duh, of course.
MITCHELL: In person, it’s just so much fucking better.
A’ZION: Anything for my Uncle. I don’t know where the questions just went. It’s like this whole movie we’ve been prepping for this interview. This whole movie’s been a meet and greet so that we could get really comfortable with each other and know all of our deepest, darkest secrets, and then do an interview.
MITCHELL: Yep, but we can’t talk about any of them.
A’ZION: You’ll just look at me and I’ll know exactly what you mean.
MITCHELL: How did we first meet? Is that right?
A’ZION: Horse day, I feel like we really first met.
MITCHELL: You were great on the horse, man.
A’ZION: You were great on the horse, obviously.
MITCHELL: I got experience on House of the Dragon.
A’ZION: That’s a perfect segue.
MITCHELL: I know. 
A’ZION: I remember I was so excited to ride the horses because—
MITCHELL: We can talk about the horses, right? That’s not spoilers for this film?
A’ZION: For this film? No, I think it’s fine. I was so excited to ride the horses with you guys. They were going to let me gallop, but then my horse took off before we even started rolling.
MITCHELL: No, that was intentional. That was sick. You canted into fucking frame. It was wicked. On House of the Dragon, I got a great horse master. They’re called The Devil’s Horsemen.
A’ZION: What’s your horse’s name?
MITCHELL: The horse that I use primarily is called Fandango.
A’ZION: Love it. Does he talk about movies?
MITCHELL: [Laughs] He’s great, but he can be quite moody sometimes.
A’ZION: Really? Did you form a bond with Mr. Fandango?
MITCHELL: Yeah, for sure. I think with that, it only comes with time. You have to spend as much time on the back of the horse and slowly acclimatize yourself.
A’ZION: What about taking care of them? Do you have to take care of them as well for that bond to build?
MITCHELL: I did. I was on a stable during lockdown in York and I was with a bunch of—
A’ZION: Wait, you started this show in lockdown?
MITCHELL: It was during COVID, so that’s why it was 11 months, there were so many shutdowns.
A’ZION: Whoa, I didn’t know that.
MITCHELL: But it was during lockdown I did a bit of work on a stable that had ex-race horses. It was in prep for a short film that I was doing, and it was so good just being on the back of a horse, an open field. It was a baptism by fire.
A’ZION: So, you ride horses and you ride dragons. What’s it like riding dragons? Are they real? Can I know?
MITCHELL: No, it’s like a bucking bronco, a mechanical bucking bronco. You’re suspended.
A’ZION: Is it fun? Or is it stressful?
MITCHELL: It’s so fucking fun.
A’ZION: Does it ever feel real or are you really aware that it’s green screen?
MITCHELL: It’s as real as it could be. That’s the great thing about HBO, is that everything that they can fit in frame that is real, they do. And then CGI enhances that shot. You see that in episode one as well with the Battle of the Gullet.
A’ZION: What’s the wig like? Because I’m curious about the wig. You wear a wig in this movie as well.
MITCHELL: It takes 40, 45 minutes for the wig.
A’ZION: Okay, that’s not actually that bad.
MITCHELL: And then 20 minutes for the scars. I have a crystal because my character only has one eye.
A’ZION: How does the crystal that you put in your eye feel? Does it hurt?
MITCHELL: It’s this massive two-penny size. I guess, for you, it’s like an American old-time quarter, and they pry open your eyelid and stick it in. It’s quite isolating in a way, because you’ve just got that lack of vision, especially riding a horse as well, like the lack of balance.
A’ZION: Right, that must be hard.
MITCHELL: But you slowly just get used to it. I love it. It’s the way that people react to you as well when you have the eye contact in. The crew members, they take second little glances at you.
A’ZION: No way. Do people ever tell you that you look—
MITCHELL: I get a lot of people who say I’m mean.
A’ZION: Do you think that you have a resting bitch face?
MITCHELL: I don’t think so.
A’ZION: I don’t think you have a resting bitch face either. I think you have a resting “I know your secrets” face. That’s what you have.
MITCHELL: I know your deepest fucking darkest secret. You’re so good at this interview thing, man. Have you ever thought about doing a podcast?
A’ZION: No, but we totally should start one.
MITCHELL: We should do. We were thinking about doing one on set.
A’ZION: Should we do it?
MITCHELL: Yeah, we should do.
A’ZION: Except you ran away every time I started the podcast because you didn’t want to be in it.
MITCHELL: I know, I know. Camera shy.
A’ZION: I know.
MITCHELL: Do you get that? Before people meet you, they have a preconceived notion of how you are and they expect you to be the characters that you portray?
A’ZION: For a while, I played the troubled person. I guess I’m still playing the troubled person in my roles. You always play the bad guy, so that’s different. But you’re not a bad guy.
MITCHELL: I know, man. I want to change it. I want to play more friendly characters.
A’ZION: Well, it’s never going to happen.
MITCHELL: I know. Not the way things are going, it’s never going to happen, right? Shit. I think it’s important to show range.
A’ZION: Do you prepare for your shit? How do you prepare for films and shows?
MITCHELL: Mate, I don’t know. It varies on each project. For this one, I really just wanted to have so much faith in the day and not come into it with any pre-planned choices.
A’ZION: A bumblebee—look!
MITCHELL: Oh my god, quick.
A’ZION: Look, I have a bumblebee tattoo.
MITCHELL: It flew away. Beautiful. When did you get that?
A’ZION: A couple of years ago. I can’t remember.
MITCHELL: That’s cool. I just wanted it to feel organic on the day, and just really be open to ideas and not make too many decisions on my character before I came on set working with you guys, the ensemble. It’s just—
A’ZION: Yeah. It’s been so great working with an ensemble cast.
MITCHELL: It’s grand. Everyone just wants the best. Everyone wants to just help realize Justine [Triet]‘s vision.
A’ZION: Yeah.
MITCHELL: And the same with Aemond. The passion that Ryan Condal has for the show, it really does just bleed down through all of the different departments. And the same with me, I just want to help realize the vision.
A’ZION: Where do you guys film again?
MITCHELL: We film in North London, a place called Leavesden Studios.
A’ZION: So you get to be home?
MITCHELL: Yeah, pretty much.
A’ZION: That’s amazing.
MITCHELL: I know. It’s 40 minutes. They shot the Harry Potter films there. They’re doing the new Harry Potter TV show there.
A’ZION: Whoa. If you could choose a character type for your next film or role, what do you think you’d want to do? Would you want to do hero or would you want to do a romcom? What kind of vibe are you looking for?
MITCHELL: Do you think I could do a romcom?
A’ZION: Yeah, you could do a fucking romcom. You would kill in a romcom.
MITCHELL: No, no.
A’ZION: Are you kidding me? Dude.
MITCHELL: I don’t know.
A’ZION: Let’s pitch it. Uh-oh, we’re being called to set soon.
MITCHELL: Uh-oh.
A’ZION: Okay, so what would you want to do?
MITCHELL: I think anything if there’s a cool, interesting twist. Speaking of The Shining earlier, I think there’s something really interesting with Jack Torrance and just edgy characters.
A’ZION: But The Shining, that’s still the bad guy.
MITCHELL: Yeah, but when I think about Shelley Duvall in that film and the character she plays, I’d love to play something like that strangely enough.
A’ZION: Interesting. More of the victim?
MITCHELL: Yeah, the victim has this paranoia like, “Oh my god, this person that I love, he’s slowly going insane,” or something like that. Like a product of their environment kind of thing I’d love.
A’ZION: Right.
MITCHELL: Because Aemond is like, he wants the environment to be a product of him. He holds so much power, and I would love to play the reverse of that. What would you want to do next?
A’ZION: I don’t think I could ever do girl next door or something like that. It’d be fun though. I would like to do a really sick romcom. Something weird, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—a dramcom.
MITCHELL: Oh my god. You’d be amazing.
A’ZION: But I’m like, let’s find the original, cool scripts.
MITCHELL: Yeah, for sure. Let’s put a spotlight on those up-and-coming writers.
A’ZION: So Aemond, you know how his story ends?
MITCHELL: I do, yeah.
A’ZION: Why do you know how his story ends?
MITCHELL: It’s based on a book Fire and Blood that came out.
A’ZION: And you’ve read the book?
MITCHELL: I’ve read up to a certain point where season three ends.
A’ZION: Okay. Are you doing something where you’re reading it as you’re filming?
MITCHELL: Yeah, exactly.
A’ZION: So is it weird knowing how his story ends while you’re still living inside the parts before that?
MITCHELL: A little bit. You don’t want to see too far ahead, but at the same time, because of Game of Thrones, we all know how this ends up. The whole Targaryen dynasty ultimately crumbles within itself.
A’ZION: Jesus. Don’t tell me that.
MITCHELL: Oh, shit, sorry.
A’ZION: I haven’t finished it.
MITCHELL: I know. But it’s like, how does that happen and who is left, which is interesting.
A’ZION: Okay. Do not tell me what happens to you.
MITCHELL: I don’t want to spoil too much, but what Aemond leaves and what’s left after he’s gone, maybe he has a knock-on effect to cause it.
A’ZION: What’s the worst day that you had on set?
MITCHELL: Oh god, it would be the fight scene that I have.
A’ZION: Why?
MITCHELL: Because I had this beautiful armor made by the costume designer, Caroline McCall, and it was tightly fit to my body. They did a 360-degree scan and they basically tailored each of the individual pieces to my body at the time.
A’ZION: Were you overheated or something?
MITCHELL: Well, it was October, November. But coming to shooting that scene eight months later, my body shape had changed a little bit.
A’ZION: No way.
MITCHELL: I’d put on a bit of weight and so—
A’ZION: So you didn’t fit?
MITCHELL: I just fit by the skin of my teeth. We can walk, come on.
A’ZION: You’re sure?
MITCHELL: Yeah, let’s do it.
A’ZION: Okay, wait, finish your thing. Was it uncomfortable?
MITCHELL: When I breathed, it was quite tight.
A’ZION: Oh, no. What about the best day?
MITCHELL: The best day was, honestly, same thing with working on this, just working with the ensemble, working with the creatives. I fucking loved it.
A’ZION: Do you love your cast?
MITCHELL: Absolutely.
A’ZION: That’s amazing.
MITCHELL: As much as this cast? I don’t know.
A’ZION: Yeah, that’s right.
MITCHELL: We’re done. Thank you so much.
A’ZION: Love you.
MITCHELL: Love you.
Grooming: Brady Lee
