James Norton in House of the Dragon Season 3 Image via HBO By Carly Lane Published Jul 14, 2026, 10:01 PM EDT Carly Lane is an Atlanta-based writer and critic who has been with Collider in some form or fashion since 2021. She considers herself a television nerd, diehard romance/sci-fi/fantasy reader, and nascent horror lover. Her fondness of books is only eclipsed by the towering TBR that her shelves can't possibly contain. She is the author of A REGENCY GUIDE TO MODERN LIFE: 1800s ADVICE ON 21ST CENTURY LOVE, FRIENDS, FUN AND MORE , published through DK Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House) and currently available wherever books are sold. Sign in to your Collider account Add Us On follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4.
We're at the halfway point of House of the Dragon Season 3, and already the HBO fantasy spin-off has made some decisive moves with its characters on the overall chessboard that is Westeros. Although Rhaenyra ( Emma D'Arcy ) has definitively claimed the Iron Throne, the strife she's inherited in King's Landing is only the half of it. With the knowledge that Ormund Hightower ( James Norton ) has deceived her — not only by sending her a fake Daeryon Targaryen but also by seizing the adjacent town of Tumbleton instead of retreating — it's clear that Season 3 is setting up an inevitable clash between these armies, one that could have devastating consequences for the smallfolk caught in the middle.
Ahead of the premiere of Episode 4, "Tumbleton," Collider had the opportunity to speak with Norton about playing House of the Dragon 's newest villain and why he wanted to take "big swings" with Ormund's most pivotal scenes. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, the actor breaks down that memorable bath moment, the intricacies of Ormund's admittedly "toxic" relationship with Daeron ( Benjamin Evan Ainsworth ), what his opinion of House Targaryen and their dragons reveals about his inner nature, and more.
COLLIDER: This episode is so fabulous for your character, starting with the very memorable scene in the bath. What sort of energy did you want to bring to that scene? So often, we associate nudity with vulnerability, and here it feels like he's using it as a form of intimidation.
JAMES NORTON: Yes, he certainly is. What was lovely about this scene was it was an opportunity to see Ormund really enjoy being Ormund. A lot of the time, we see him very stressed, particularly later on in the series. As the stakes rise, he gets more and more stressed. Obviously, this is a man who lives at a high level of stress. You get a sense that he's hyper-aware and hypersensitive to certain smells and sounds, and he has a lot of OCD, and so it was really lovely to see him delighting in his power and his playfulness.
What was really great in the scene, for me, was that I was able to give them versions of it where I basically said to the director [Claire Kilner], “Can I go quite camp with this?” And again, testament and credit to the creators of the show, they were like, “Yeah, just go. See how far you can go, and have it still exist within the world.” Getting out of that bath, I got campier and campier until I was literally cocking my head and going, “Is she a queen…