Iwan Rheon says not sharing scene with Anthony Hopkins in new period show is devastating

Game of Thrones star says he requested director to write in scene so he could share frame with legendary actor in Those About to Die

Iwan Rheon is disappointed that he does not share a scene with Anthony Hopkins in Those About To Die.

The Game of Thrones star has a big role in the new series about ancient Rome and its betting underworld.

He plays Tenax, a key figure in the betting underworld of Rome in 79AD, where chariot races and gladiator fights keep citizens distracted from their miserable lives. Hopkins plays emperor Vespasian.

Rheon said he requested director Roland Emmerich to write in scenes just so he could appear in the same frame as Hopkins.

He read the script and realised that his character did not have any scenes with the emperor, the actor told Bronwen Lewis on BBC Radio Wales. “So I obviously went through my initial period of mourning, and then when I got there, I asked Roland if I could have a scene and he said no. I was kind of joking, but I also wasn’t.”

He said Hopkins’s is “probably the only character in the whole show that my character doesn’t have a scene with” and described it as “devastating”.

He managed to meet Hopkins while shooting for the series, however.

The director described pitching the show to Hopkins and said the legendary actor’s interest in history might have added to the show’s appeal for him.

“We sent him the scripts and he literally said, ‘Yes.’ He was the first guy that we actually wrote to and I was totally surprised that he was that interested!” Emmerich said at the San Diego Comic Con on 25 July.

“When we were on the set he knew so much about Rome and was such an intelligent man,” the director said, referring to the actor.

Tom Hughes as Titus Flavianus, Anthony Hopkins as Vespasian, and Jojo Macari as Domitian Flavianus in ‘Those About to Die’ (Peacock)

Speaking about his character Tenax, Rheon said he liked how adaptable he was and how Tenax matched up against his Game of Thrones’ character Ramsay Bolton.

“One thing I really like about the character is that he is able to operate in every scenario and how he plays a situation to his own benefit,” he said.

“They are both ambitious and they are both ruthless but Tenax isn’t as sadistic,” he added on whether Bolton and Tenax share any similarities.

“He doesn’t get any pleasure from it. It’s business for him. But I can see where people will draw that comparison.”

The series is inspired by the nonfiction book of the same name by Daniel P Mannix and is written by Robert Rodat, who was nominated for an Oscar for writing Saving Private Ryan.

The cast also includes Tom Hughes as Titus Flavianus, Sara Martins as Cala, Gabriella Pession as Antonia, and Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as Viggo.

In his three-star review of the show forThe Independent, Nick Hilton wrote: “Hopkins earns his pay cheque with a rather lacklustre performance as the sage Vespacian.”

“History nerds will find much to quibble with in the depiction of the Flavian dynasty. Ultimately, Those About to Die is not really for those people whose Roman Empire is the Roman Empire. It is for people who want the ancient world, where the stakes of sex and violence were far lower than the present day, to give licence to something primal, something carnal, in them. Emmerich doesn’t do subtle, and so Those About to Die is suitably, viscerally, bold.”

All 10 episodes of Those About to Die are out now on Peacock in the US and Amazon Prime Video in the UK.