'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' star Finn Bennett on Prince Aerion: 'Game of Thrones' characters are written as if they'll go down in history books

As ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ nears its series finale, actor Finn Bennett reflects on stepping into the chaos as a character fans would 'love to hate' - Prince Aerion Targaryen.

In a roundtable conversation attended by ETimes, Bennett opened up about portraying the deeply flawed prince, unravelling the fury that defines him and tapping into Aerion’s simmering resentment for House Targaryen at a time when it is no longer at the height of its power.

“It was important for me, when we were filming this, to situate where the Targaryens as a house are in terms of political power,” Bennett said. “The fact is, there’s been a huge weakening of power away from the Targaryens. They don’t have any dragons anymore. They’re sort of at this tournament that is not a big deal, and I think everyone thinks that’s beneath them.”

That lowered status, Bennett explained, fuels Aerion’s anger and erratic behaviour throughout the series. He explains, “A lot of my job was to justify why Aerion acts out the way he acts out, and why he’s so angry and why he’s kind of acting so outlandish. A lot of that comes from the embarrassment he feels about the Targaryen household not ruling quite with the iron fist they used to. He wants to show people again who’s boss.”

While Aerion is expected to be a character audiences “love to hate,” Finn stressed that the prince never views himself as unjustified. Instead, he sees his actions as necessary to restore the family’s reputation, saying “He thinks House Targaryen is a bit of an embarrassment at the minute. And he kind of wants to remind everybody who they are. That’s why he’s acting so outlandishly.”

Giving due credit to the team at work behind the scenes, bringing these characters to life, he shared, “I think Aerion is a character that took an army to build. Once you’re in that get-up, with the armour and the wig, it’s kind of impossible not to start feeling it.”

When ETimes asked Finn how working on this series was different from his other work, he admitted that he was a bit nervous at first, he felt equally thrilled to be part of such a massive franchise.

Finn shared, "I feel very lucky to have been a part of it. I think it's a huge responsibility because of the series and the success of the series that have come before. And that's really scary, you put an immense amount of pressure on yourself to get it right."

Elaborating on the weight of joining the franchise, he added, “I think the biggest pressure was getting cast and then thinking, ‘Okay, what now? What do I do here that’s original? How do I leave my mark on this character? How do I leave my mark on this world?’ I always compare ‘Game of Thrones’ to Shakespeare’s histories. They’re kind of like the War of the Roses — these characters are written as if they’re going to go down in the history books. And now they have faces.”

'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms', set a century before 'Game of Thrones', explores a period of decline for House Targaryen. While the series comes to a close with the release of Sunday's episode, HBO has renewed it for its second season, which is currently being filmed. Based on George RR Martin's "Tales of Dunk and Egg" novellas, the series follows the adventures of the hedge knight Ser Duncan "Dunk" the Tall played by Peter Claffey and his squire Egg, played by Dexter Sol Ansell.