James Norton Addresses House Of The Dragon Nude Bathtub Scene

James Norton has definitely been inducted into House Of The Dragon, following his first nude scene in the hit fantasy series.

Monday’s instalment of the Game Of Thrones prequel sees James’ character Ormund Hightower stepping out of a bath while slating Queen Rhaenyra, played by Emma D’Arcy, to those around him.

During a recent Q&A session with GQ, this scene was brought up in the conversation, with the interviewer pointing out that it showed off a “very camp” side to James’ character’s personality.

The former Happy Valley star then explained that this was a deliberate choice on his part, as he wanted to give the directing team a wide range of line deliveries to choose from.

“If you don’t trust the director, you give them a very small parameter of options, because you think, in the edit, you could take the really extreme ones and manipulate your performance into something you didn’t intend,” he claimed.

“With this, I was like, ‘do you know what? Fuck it, I’m just going to give them a big range’. I have this line where I’m like, ‘is she a queen or is she a bitch with a dragon?’, and I kind of cock my hip. I thought, ‘I’ll just go for it a couple of times’. And the amazing thing is that they used the really camp one!”

“Your whole arse fills the screen,” GQ’s moderator then claimed, to which James quipped: “I can’t work out if that is a compliment or not.”

James also shared this anecdote during a new interview with New York magazine, recalling: “I cocked my hip in that take and thought, ‘They’re never gonna use this’. And then I was in [post-production] and they used it and I thought, ‘Fuck, good for you’.”

The outlet pointed out that his character’s nudity is an act of “sexual intimidation”, particularly as he’s parading himself naked in front of a noblewoman from the town that he’s taken over.

Elsewhere in the interview, he observed: “They could have easily made Ormund a competent, proud, honorable man. Instead, we’ve got this fucked-up, sort of S&M, masochistic guy.”

A regular face on British screens for more than a decade, James has been especially busy in the last two years thanks to his work in Netflix’s House Of Guinness, ITV’s Fair Play and the BBC’s King & Conqueror.

Interestingly, in the latter, James also had a nude scene set in a bath, which he opened up about during an interview with HuffPost UK last year.

House Of The Dragon continues on Mondays on HBO Max, Now and Sky in the UK.