what doesn't kill us makes us bitter

What about a Regency AU with one of the more ridiculous Bridgerton plots sprinkled in, where Miss Duncana Pennytree is traveling to London with her guardian Ser Arlan for the Season, in the hopes that he can get her married before he dies— only he dies before they even get to London, leaving Dunk pretty much stranded once she finally gets to the city.

She more or less stumbles into a ball hosted by the Baratheons, who always begin the Season with some lively festivities. There she catches the attention of Lord Lyonel, but it's only the next day that she has a chance encounter with Prince Baelor Targaryen himself, where she ends up confessing that she's got no prospects, but still must find a suitable (or at least not wretched) match by the end of the Season.

Baelor is plagued with the opposite problem, more or less — ever since the death of his dear wife he has been hounded by prospective brides and their hopeful parents. But as the Heir to the Throne he can't exactly refuse to be part of the Season, and so he's just been white-knuckling his way through each spring and summer.

Something something something, they agree that Baelor will pretend to be interested in Duncana — not courting her, of course, but certainly not looking at anyone else for the duration of the Season. This will elevate her status while keeping most of the brides at bay, which is a win all around. (Lyonel hates this plan a lot but nobody actually consulted him beforehand.)

• he used to LARP, got his first sword at eleven years old (he used to do stage fighting in drama school and absolutely loved it). playing Baelor and standing in a muddy field wearing an armour brought him right back to those happy times

• he's very proud of Baelor as a character and of himself for having brought Baelor to life. he said that if he were to put the characters he's played in a line-up, baelor would stand out because that's him, that's Bertie's face and he seldom gets to wear just his own face. He actually prefers to be just him

• Baelor is very dear to him. the world needs to see heroes and people who show up and do the right thing, now more than ever

• literally waxed poetry about Peter Claffey. said that acting with him was incredibly easy because that's what happens when the people you share your lines with are good. said that Peter and Dunk share a lot of similarities, that Dunk resides in Peter's comfort zone as much as Baelor resides in Bertie's and that made the acting feel natural

• the first thing he asked to the costume department when they did the armour fitting was to have a flap somewhere on the armour. front and back. this dude istg

• he likes playing political figures, especially if he can slip into their minds and build something recognizable that creates a connection between the audience and the "hidden" actor. he was asked if there's a particular politician he would like to play and replied that he usually prefers to be offered a part without him manifesting it. he also misses the selection process and wishes he could get back to experiencing some good old anxiety from competing to get a part

• his family is two generations deep into political journalism. his grandfather (scottish, btw) and father used to write papers about England's political affairs and went on about some hours-long speech politicians used to hold in Parliament, how those men used to take a drink to strengthen themselves before hearing said speech (he mentioned 1947? It was a whole papa beaver situation and it was late, some details about this report are foggy. Forgive Me) and his grandfather asked about what kind of drink it was so that he could have a scoop. the story ends with people resigning and both his grandfather a father dying of a, quote unquote, broken heart

• he was asked something about managing his characters after their story ends and if he imagines their lives after he's done playing them and. he said. that this question made him think about what happens to the letters and e-mail you write but never end up sending. the ones sitting in your drafts. what happens when you delete them? do they stay in the cloud somewhere, is the trace of their existence gone forever? he doesn't know if the afterlife exists but he does keep on loving the people he shared a life with, and the same goes to his characters

• he loves playing Dalgliesh because he's an interesting man, he was dubious about whether the people needed another detective but he got to understand that yes, people love following a detective because we love seeing a mystery get solved. he questioned how come we as creatures on earth think that having a cup of tea and watching a detective solving crime on the telly makes our whole night (he declared himself guilty of being part of this ritual). he actually directed two episodes and needed to work around the library of sound cues that were already been composed, so he got to also stand on the other side of the camera and he's proud of himself for having taken that risk. he defined Dalglish as poetic, deeply sensitive

• when he was asked why he played two characters in The Crown, he laughed and said he needed the money

• he misses the theatre. extensively talked about favoring the theatre over filmmaking because the first demands a slower process, one that counts the audience as an integral part of the play, whereas filmmaking is a fast game, actors don't know which takes are going to be used once they close a set so they have to do the best they can as quickly as possibile. theatre means growth, experimenting, trial and error, and he loves the highs and lows of it

• two wolves live inside of him: one that wants the script to be the only sacred text he refers to when playing a character and the other that researches to the point of obsession. when movies or shows find their original source in books, he sometimes reads them and sometimes doesn't because he doesn't really know how to manages the conflict that grows inside of him when something gets changed for the sake of a screen adaptation. there are directors that were open to changing the script once he brought up a detail he liked from the project's source material, but he tends to avoid doing this. he needs to do proper research to get something in his guts to switch and click when he plays political figures, though. but yeah, he sways and touches both neds of the stick, depends on the part

• "every part you play is political. and if it's not, i don't know how"

and now i really need to go to bed bc i'm exhausted and writing in english after midnight turned my brain into mush but before i do. let me share this picture and the story behind it.

picture me standing right next to this man. politely waiting for my turn to thank him for spending his time with us. literally waiting at his side. the translator (an exceptional woman btw) shows him something on her phone. he fishes his own phone out of his pocket. he's got a hot pink phone cover. opens the cover. pulls out a pair of what i can't even define reading glasses. they're pince-nez. clear. puts them on and they're there, just sitting on his nose. unbelievable.

oh and he was wearing an embroidered shirt. also, like, you know. big hands

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