Emma D’Arcy Is a Consummate Lead on House of the Dragon

When awards season rolls around, one of the debates that most often sprouts up like a weed is which performers are committing “category fraud.” Oftentimes, people measure what actors are the leads of a show or a film by the minutes of time they appear on screen, and not the stature of their role.

Currently, on the film side of things, random tweeters post snarky comments about Viola Davis submitting as the Lead Actress of “The Woman King” even when the film more often follows breakout star Thuso Mbedu, ignoring the fact the Oscar winner plays the titular female monarch. With TV awards, there are often tiffs about placements of actors like Hannah Einbinder entering the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series race, even though she is the co-lead of “Hacks” with Jean Smart, or “Yellowjackets” stars Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, and Christina Ricci dividing and conquering the Outstanding Lead and Supporting Actress in a Drama Series categories.

One case from this coming year where people seem to finally get what actually constitutes a lead, as awards bodies like the Screen Actors Guild prepare to nominate a new wave of TV actors from shows that premiered during the second half of 2022, is with “House of the Dragon” performer Emma D’Arcy.

The non-binary star of the highly-anticipated “Game of Thrones” prequel centered on the silvery blonde Targaryen family does not appear on screen until halfway through the debut season, where they take over the role of Princess Rhaenyra from young phenom Milly Alcock. Viewers are immediately struck by D’Arcy’s intensity in their first moments as the queen-in-waiting, taking shallow breaths during another one of the fantasy series’ all-too-horrific birthing scenes.

Thankfully, Rhaenyra’s arc becomes slightly less brutal in the episodes that follow, leaving room for D’Arcy to exhibit the character’s natural strength as an ascending ruler of the seven kingdoms of Westeros. Though she suffers some of the same adversities as “Game of Thrones” characters like Sansa Stark or Cersei Lannister, she is allowed to be a more complicated hero. Transcending the dialogue, D’Arcy makes use of their mesmerizing gaze to capture Rhaenyra’s warmth as a protective mother, her cunning as she creates the life she wants with Prince Daemon out of the ashes of their tragic first marriages, and her melancholy at the state of the. By season’s end, D’Arcy makes the audience see red the way Rhaenyra sees it, facing unspeakable loss.

Though “House of the Dragon” is an ensemble series, viewers can tell just by D’Arcy’s presence that their Rhaenyra is the star of the show. The character literally bookends the second half of the season with the aforementioned childbirth scene, and finale heartbreaker. Already, D’Arcy has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series–Drama at the Golden Globes, so more Lead Performance nominations should follow. Even on a show that was too big to fail, with a marginal amount of screentime compared to their fellow nominees, D’Arcy’s standout work served as a reminder that it can be what an actor does with the material given that elevates them to lead consideration come awards time.

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