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As it turns out, Considine went through his own health struggles playing the ailing Viserys. With each passing episode, the aging king is in worse and worse shape as his underlings, children, and much younger wife squabble over who will take his throne after he’s gone, and Considine said that what was required of him to perform this was actually a bit hazardous to his health.
“Playing somebody who’s dying is a strange thing, especially a prolonged death,” Considine said. “When you do it over a period of days, and your breathing’s shallow — my oxygen level started to go down. I had to be taken off set and given regular fresh air, because I was nearly passing out. It’s almost like your brain starts to tell your body that you are sick. It’s really quite weird.”
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After a ten-year time jump halfway through the season, Viserys returns and is visibly unwell, giving Considine three episodes to play a king whose body is betraying him slowly and painfully. Considine suffered for his art, but he achieved the result he wanted by playing Viserys to perfection before the character’s death.
