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Sam C. Wilson very memorably plays Blood in the first two episodes of HBO’s House of the Dragon season two. Of course, House of the Dragon is the Game of Thrones prequel series that illustrates the infighting and eventual uncivil war that ultimately leads to the downfall of the Targaryen dynasty. At the end of season two’s first episode, Blood and his cohort Cheese (Mark Stobbart) are sent by Daemon Targaryen to assassinate King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). Failing to do that, they take the life of Aegon’s only son and heir to the Iron Throne.

Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Wilson digs into that horrific scene. He details the priorities on-set to make it work for the show and for the actors. He also talks about his several upcoming projects in television and film. Finally, he swears he isn’t stalking Paddy Considine.

Awards Daily: How did you originally become interested in acting?

Sam C. Wilson: I was very interested in being an actor as a kid but where I grew up there were not a whole lot of opportunities for boys to go into acting. Even when I was in college there was drama but only the girls did it.  So I was doing all the guy roles for all the girls’ scenes. I got marked for that from an external examiner even though I wasn’t even studying it. (I was doing math and science.) Yet I was acting in all the extracurricular  programs and I was in the Theatre Royal in York.  So the writing was on the wall and I realized I should probably go to drama school, because no matter what I was doing there was this constant desire to be in acting and I felt I took quite naturally to it.  So I went to drama school and trained there. Then an agent saw me there and took me on (who is still my agent).  I’m a big guy with a deep voice and she said that she could work with that and build a career with me. And we have done just that.  I’m one of the very lucky few  where timing has just worked. Even if I also have still been doing math and science work in between jobs.  Even when I was filming House of the Dragon I was also teaching calculus.

Awards Daily: Speaking of your deep voice, your introduction in House of the Dragon you make quite the impression by just stepping up and saying, “Fuck the Hightowers.”  I was curious how you got into that mindset to get so much across in so little time.

Sam C. Wilson: So credit to the props department in particular because by the time we filmed that it was the middle of the night and Matt Smith was skulking behind a real gate in a real courtyard. Those  surroundings you’re seeing, they built them.  Quite often your immediate surroundings are set dressed, so you’re interacting with objects but your soft focus background will be blue and green and they will fill it in afterwards. Not here, it is real, and that helped create the mood overall.

I also did some work to get in the zone to play Blood. I based him on a butcher living near me in London, who (talking in a deep voice) has a very deep voice and spoke with an accent.  Then, since I am walking along in full armor, to play that up I did some heavy breathing exercises  and practiced walking like it’s a lot of effort.  Besides all that, Matt is such an amazing actor.  He has it when you look him in the eye you feel so there with him. So I use a lot of different tricks from the toolbox to make him very, very different from who I am. It is a dream to play someone nothing like you. It’s kind of what it’s all about.

Awards Daily: You have some new series coming out soon: Small Town, Big Story, and Funny Woman. Can you tell us anything about those?

Sam C. Wilson: In Funny Woman I pop up again in some variant of the deep voice hard man (which again is nothing like me). I am very excited about Small Town, Big Story, written and directed by Chris O’Dowd, who is the Irish ambassador to America I believe by being in Bridesmaids. I play a truly lovable, sweet big Irish guy called Big Jim who ends up getting cast to play a hard man. So it is very much art imitating life.  There is also some strangeness going on in the town and I don’t know if there’s anything else I can say about it plot-wise. It also stars Paddy Considine and Christina Hendricks, who are fantastic to work with, and I am not just going to pretend that it’s always been like this.  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that I am incredibly lucky that it is blowing up for me in the last few years. When you are up close with these people you can see they have something special about them and they make it very easy to join in.

Awards Daily: So obviously the big scene for you in House of the Dragon is the end of episode 1, a scene that people who have read the book have been waiting for, and that people like me who have not but are just enjoying the show were horrified by. Was there a lot of pressure about how to do that scene considering how integral it is to the entire story of the season?

Sam C. Wilson: There was an unspoken pressure that we wanted to get it right. We knew it was important to the people who had read the book.  I also think on set there was a prominent sense to look after the kids, making certain they felt like me and Mark (Stobbart) were just two big silly actors in silly costumes. Ultimately me and Mark are professional actors so we can pretend hard enough to get into those characters. We don’t have to go to a dark place and stay there all day like that in our trailers. Again, credit to the art department for creating the surroundings, and the editors who did a master class in editing to make certain the kids were never in harm’s way even in terms of language being said on set.

But there was a pressure to get it right and what I wanted was for the people who had read about Blood to get a terrifying enough sense of him from me. Because I was aware there were differences in the event itself from the book to the show. I must admit I was a little surprised when people said that it wasn’t gruesome enough. Because for me, beheading a child with those sound effects, I don’t know what more you want or need.  I understand people are purest when it comes to literature, that is absolutely fine.  I  certainly have watched things where I read the book too and I have felt strange about there being differences.  I just hope more broadly people liked the characterization of it and just enjoy the show in its own separate right.

Awards Daily: I thought the sound effects sold it more than seeing anything could. I didn’t need more than that actually.

Sam C. Wilson: I agree!  I think if you have a strong mind’s eye you get these dreadful feelings of oh, I hope he didn’t wake up. All these horrible unknowns coming into it. Obviously by the time I came to watch it, life had gone on for me because I filmed it over a year ago. So watching it now I felt like any other fan watching it and I was just like, oh, God.

Awards Daily:  I also read you have a film called Deep Cover coming out. What can you tell us about that?

Sam C. Wilson: Oh, I’m really excited about that!  Again Paddy Considine is in it. I think he must think I’m following him.  I had to reassure him that I didn’t just ask my agent to find out where he was and try to get me booked. Although it is a lovely coincidence because A, I’m a major fan, and B, he is such a lovely man.  It also has Orlando Bloom,  Bryce Dallas Howard  and Ian McShane (who is in equal measures menacing and funny). Also Sonoya Mizuno, who is the White Worm in House of the Dragon, is in it.  I’m very much looking forward to it coming out. I think it’s very very funny. The director, Tom Kingsley, did  This is Going to Hurt, and Stath Lets Flats about a lettings agent. He is a deeply funny man.  The movie is about a set of improv actors who go undercover. (Laughing) I play  another charming bearded bad man that they are going undercover against. I’m really excited for all of this to come out.

Awards Daily: Sounds like you do have a lot coming out on the horizon. It seems very exciting.

Sam C. Wilson: It is exciting! I am also filming a series at the moment (which I can’t say anything else about the show except that I’m excited about it). I am doing a fair bit of pinching myself, to be honest. I live in Brighton and coming back there I get these little normal bits of life. Outside of this my life is ordinary and I find that is good for me. Like I failed to make some bread earlier, that has been in today’s endeavor.  Then I also paid some taxes. [Laughes]