Actor Steve Toussaint on power, racism and returning to House of the Dragon
Tell us about the experience of filming House of the Dragon Season 3?
From the minute you walk onto the set and see those huge ships they built, it was enthralling. We all got to feel like Errol Flynn for a few weeks.
You starred in the epic AIDS drama, It’s a Sin. How different was filming House of the Dragon?
Chalk and cheese! It’s a Sin was epic in its themes, the time period it stretched across, and how impactful that horrible part of our history was, but the actual work was still kind of small and personal. Whereas House of the Dragon is sweeping vistas and grand movements, and all that violence. It was exercising a different muscle.
When House of the Dragon first debuted, there was some backlash from ugly, dark corners of the internet about Black actors playing Valyrian nobility. Does that rhetoric affect you personally?
It was initially a surprise. Not that racism exists, of course. I have lived with that my whole life. But that it had seeped into what is just a fantasy story.
It is one thing to say to somebody, “Just ignore it,” but it is another thing to be the target of it.
There was one specific moment I remember. Some of my family members had come over for Sunday lunch, and a message popped up on my phone and it was somebody racially abusing me for being in House of the Dragon.
Looking at it now retrospectively, I think they are feeling upset with whatever is happening in their life, and they think, “I’ll just pile on to this for now,” because it is an escape valve for them.
I ask because many of our readers know what it is like to experience hostile commentary online, and I wondered if you have found any useful ways to keep that in perspective?
It is a difficult one… the word “woke” has now suddenly become an insult, when it actually just means, “I hear and respect you and your views.”
Sometimes we have to take a couple of steps back before we take three or four forward.
My coping mechanism is that when I think about these people, I feel somewhat sorry for them, but I know that is easier said than done.
This season of House of the Dragon digs further into the ethics of power and what it does to leaders. How did that make you reflect on the world we are living in today?
Well, the pursuit of power does not always take into account what gaining it will do for you.
In House of the Dragon, you seek, struggle and strive to get the throne, but once you have that responsibility, “Do you really want it? And why do you want it?” Because power can corrupt.
In our so-called liberal democracies, we are meant to have a system of checks and balances so that nobody can ride roughshod over others, but if you are the monarch, what you say goes, until, of course, you fall foul of the people.
Right now you are looking very different to your character, Lord Corlys Velaryon. We do not have the grey dreadlocks or the beard we see on screen. Do you miss any of that when filming wraps?
As far as the beard is concerned, I am relieved; it just gets on my tits!
The wig, I quite like. I have asked several times to take it home and I am just met with strange looks.
New episodes of House of the Dragon Season 3 drop every Monday throughout July 26 on HBO Max
