‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3 Tragic Twist: Phia Saban Interview

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the House of the Dragon season three finale.]

“Do not trust the queen. Aegon has returned. His dragon lives. Your unborn child is a hostage, a prize by which she can hold power over her enemies. She will never release you.”

These end up being among the final words Queen Helaena Targaryen ever hears. In the House of the Dragon season three finale, a newly ousted Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) issues her stark warning to the recently imprisoned Helaena (Phia Saban), who internalizes that information and weaponizes it: first, by way of speaking ugly truths about Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) right to her face, and then, finally, by way of an open Red Keep window. Just as King Tommen once plummeted from that very same location in Game of Thrones, so too now has Helaena fallen. The season ends with Rhaenyra coming upon Helaena’s vacant quarters, while Team Green’s queen herself lies on the ground below, impaled on spikes. 

It’s a haunting image, perhaps appropriately so, given Helaena as a character who knows a thing or two about nightmares and dreams. It’s also a hinge upon which much of the rest of House of the Dragon will turn, according to the folks behind the scenes. In a press event held ahead of the season finale, D’Arcy spoke about Helaena’s death and what it means for the show’s future: “Helaena is sort of the moral heart of the show, I think. She’s maybe the only character who has a proximity to power, but remains kind of uncontaminated. And so, I think her death sort of condemns Rhaenyra to the path she’s chosen. I think there’s sort of no way back after that.”

If there’s a way back, it exists somewhere far beyond the fallen Helaena. Below, Phia Saban chats with The Hollywood Reporter about building out the dream-seeing queen’s final chapter.

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How much did you know about Helaena’s fate in advance?

When I got the job, I spent a lot of time Googling and searching the Wikis, so I’ve always known this was coming. Plus, there are so many fans out there in the world, and I know so many people who knew and would make a point to tell me about what was going to happen to me. 

When it’s a show this big with a character fate this crucial, is it pretty much impossible to avoid that kind of spoiler on your end?

Totally. It was never an option not to know. I’m just happy I made it three seasons!

You’ve had a lot of time to think about her death, then. What are some of your first thoughts when you think about the character, now that her arc ends in this way?

Objectively, it’s very sad. The story is sad. I love Helaena. I feel for Helaena. I try to find hope, by thinking she felt as though she had been killed already in many ways, but… it’s very sad. But for me? Kind of a bucket list thing: I got to die on TV! (Laughs.) I got to do the thing where you keep your eyes open… everyone wants to do that!

How was that experience?

The prosthetics were amazing. It made me want to do a thing where I’m entirely in prosthetics. It was so genius, getting to work on that. You really work with the most talented people on House of the Dragon. I could go through every department right now and tell you all about them, but the people I had never really worked with much before were the prosthetics people, and it was amazing. I sat there while they created my neck, which had this incredible spike, and they painted it on me in a way that was so lifelike. It was so fun. 

What went into crafting the force-feeding scene?

It involved a few weeks of what we’d call “gruel meetings.” I would try all these different slops, and they would say, “Choose the one you want to get force-fed.” The one we picked, it was a dal, low spice level. It was okay! 

Before that goes down, literally, you have one final scene with Emma. What do you remember about it?

I really loved it, because it came from a conversation I had with executive producers [Ryan Condal and Sara Hess] about it. I felt a lot of ownership over Helaena and have loved building that character. And I felt it was important to get across some of the things that I had always had as Helaena mantras in my mind in that moment. And I felt like that was the justice for Helaena. So we spoke a lot about Joan of Arc, and this idea that there’s more to life than not being dead. I found it really delicious that Helaena could be like, “There are things in the world that you’ll never know how beautiful they are, and they’re not even beautiful.” And that’s truly what she wants to get back to: having a relationship with the world and not being kept and silenced and used.

That links up with the scene in the courtyard, when Helaena looks out at all the birds in cages being taken away.

Is there a shot of her holding something in her hand? If there isn’t, what might be some context is that when we shot that scene, I was holding a dead caterpillar. To me, that moment became more about her relationship with nature, mourning her freedom and how strongly she feels for her creatures — and exactly as you say, how it strikes her that to see something that won’t live and fly again. I think to me, that’s what that was about, but they might’ve done some clever editing and just not got me holding it.

What was your last day on set like?

I saw Fabien talk about this, and I wonder how much it’s clever scheduling from the team, but the last thing I shot was my death shot. I was on a soundstage surrounded by spikes feeling pretty proud of myself in my prosthetics, trying to keep my eyes open with the whole team. And then Ryan came out and he said some nice things and lots of lovely people were there. And yeah, it was really amazing. It’s very hard in the moment to take in the finality of it. This is something I’ve been working on, and a character I’ve been caring for, for five years now. But there is joy in this. There’s pride and there’s excitement. It will probably hit me once I see the full episode and it’s out there, or perhaps when they all get back to work without me. 

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House of the Dragon season three is now streaming on HBO Max; read THR‘s finale coverage.