'House of the Dragon' Blood actor breaks down how the 'horrific' first episode was filmed. He says his character almost met an even grislier end.

• Sam C. Wilson played Blood in "House of the Dragon" season two.

• The British actor broke down how "horrific" ending to the first episode was filmed.

• He also revealed that his character's brutal death was almost even grislier

The actor who played Blood in "House of the Dragon" season two broke down how the gruesome first episode was filmed in an interview with Business Insider.

The shocking season two premiere sees Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) hire mercenaries Blood (Sam C. Wilson) and Cheese (Mark Stobbart) to assassinate Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell).

When they fail to find Aemond in the Red Keep, they use knives to slaughter a Targaryen toddler instead, as their mother, Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban), flees the room.

Some fans criticized the scene because it wasn't as gory and brutal as the child's death in the book the show is based on, "Fire and Blood."

Here's how the Blood and Cheese scenes were filmed, according to Wilson.

The child actors on the "House of the Dragon" set weren't involved in the killing

Unlike in the book, viewers only see a couple of shots of Blood and Cheese lunging at the cot before putting a hand over the child's mouth. It then cuts away to focus on Helaena, instead of the toddler being killed.

"We had a dummy that was, I suppose, a loosely dressed, slightly more human-looking resuscitation dummy. On the day we knew it would be a cutaway with implied violence," he said.

"So we went over to this cot and just looked busy in the most horrible way."

Wilson also assured fans that none of the young actors who were involved in the scene saw what he and Stobbart acted out.

"The children were only about when we sort of looked upon them sleeping. And then whenever there was any dialogue or any sort of nasty words being said, any kind of implication of anything like that, the kids were nowhere near it," he said.

Responding to fans complaining that the scene wasn't gory enough, Wilson said that the idea of the violence inflicted on a child is distressing enough.

"I think that, ultimately, it was still horrific. I mean, because I did it so long ago and I look different now when I was watching it… I really was wincing. It's not a nice watch for me either," he said.

Don't worry, they didn't actually kick the dog

Wilson and Stobbart were somewhat upstaged by the cute canine costar who accompanies Blood and Cheese on their mission. Audiences were upset when Cheese kicked the small dog — whose real name is Bobby.

"People seemed more disgruntled at the dog kick than beheading a child!" Wilson joked.

But he stressed that Bobby "didn't even see the swing of the foot" during filming.

"The dog was the real star. You should have seen his kennel. A real diva," he continued. "Bobby is the dog's name, unbelievably sweet little thing. And I also have to tell a journalist, the dog was not kicked!"

Blood's death in episode two was nearly much more gruesome

In the second episode of the season, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) executes Blood to get revenge for his son's death. Although Wilson said he was up for "epic" torture faithful to the book, his character is killed quickly with a mace.

But the scene could have been grislier.

"I think there was talk of Aegon potentially missing and not getting a clean break, so my jaw comes off. Which again, I'd have been totally down for," Wilson said.

It took seven hours to build the prosthetics of Blood's broken face, before the death scene was filmed five times.

"They film the shot with you already bloodied up, and then you go out and you have all the prosthetics removed, and then you come back in and film it again," he explained.

"If you slowed it down, the mace would be swinging to an unmarked face up until it connected, and then it would be a jump cut to when we had the prosthetic on."

Wilson hopes his relatively small role will lead to even greater things. Leading roles in one of the biggest TV shows of all time made "Game of Thrones" alum, including Kit Harington, Richard Madden, and Emilia Clarke, household names. Meanwhile actors with smaller roles in the series have also seen their careers flourish, like "The Last of Us" star Bella Ramsey.

Wilson will next be seen in the crime-comedy movie, "Deep Cover," alongside Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean, and "House of the Dragon" star Paddy Considine.

There's also a super-secret project that Wilson can't say anything about —but judging by the ear-to-ear smile over Zoom, he's incredibly excited about the future.

Read the original article on Business Insider