Paddy Considine on the deeply personal inspiration for his greatest role: “I just played my mum”
For the last 25 years, Paddy Considine has quietly gone about his business and, in the process, become one of the greatest British actors in modern film and television.
For years, he was known as the intense, gritty star of movies like Dead Man’s Shoes and Journeyman, and fans in the know would rejoice when he popped up on TV in the likes of Red Riding and Peaky Blinders. For whatever reason, though, his career always seemed somewhat under the radar, at least when it came to mainstream audiences, until the last five years or so. As Considine himself will tell you, though, much of the uptick in his profile is thanks to the role he once called “the greatest character I’ve ever played.”
When Considine signed up to play King Viserys I in House of the Dragon, HBO’s hotly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel, he was aware he was embarking upon a project that would be more scrutinised than anything he’d been a part of before. In the show, set 200 years before the original series, Viserys is the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms and figurehead of the Targaryen family, which meant the categorically low-key Considine finally got the chance to peacock by playing fantasy royalty, complete with a long white blonde wig and ceremonial robes.
Since playing Viserys, who only lasted eight episodes before succumbing to leprosy, Considine has bagged a lead role in the Tom Hardy/Guy Ritchie gangster series MobLand, and made tentative forays back into Hollywood with supporting turns in the action comedies Deep Cover and Heads of State. It’s unlikely that any of these roles will live as long in his heart as Viserys, though, not least because he dug deep into his soul to find a deeply personal inspiration for playing a character dying from a ruthless affliction.
“When I played Viserys Targaryen, I just played my mum, you know,” Considine told The Independent in 2022. “That’s what I played – my mother.”
Heartbreakingly, Considine’s beloved mum, who raised him on a council estate in Staffordshire, was always an “anchor” for the actor, who never let his working-class background stop him from pursuing his dreams in acting and music. He “loved her very much” and was devastated when diabetes slowly but surely robbed her of her independence, mobility, and finally, her life. “She lost sight in both of her eyes, and she lost both of her legs,” Considine revealed, laying bare the horror of watching his mother suffer. “She was in a terrible, terrible state.”
For Considine, though, it was his mother’s reaction to her plight that inspired him most when crafting Viserys’ battle with leprosy. “I think she hid inside her illness, and that made it worse for her,” he mused with unflinching honesty. “It was a lot for us and everyone around to care for her, whereas she needed to care for herself, too.” He tapped into that defeatist outlook for Viserys, who is laid so low by his illness that he refuses to fight for his life and the lives of those around him.
Having said that, Considine also ensured he incorporated the best parts of the mum he loved so much in Viserys, too. He wanted the King to have his mother’s “passion and love for the people that are close to him,” and in a pivotal scene where he interacts with his grandchildren, he simply channelled how his mum always bloomed around his kids. “He picks them up, and kisses them, and holds them,” Considine noted, “and it’s bringing that aspect of love to what could be a very stiff character.”
Ultimately, Considine’s late mother didn’t just inspire Viserys in his darkest moments; she was “the template” for helping him breathe humanity into the character.
