‘House of the Dragon’ Actress Abigail Thorn Has One Big Question About Sharako Lohar: “Does Sharako Top or Bottom?”

The House of the Dragon Season 2 finale introduced HBO viewers to a whole new power player for the civil war ahead: Shakaro Lohar (Abigail Thorn), the charismatic Admiral of the Triarchy. The Triarchy is a triumvirate of three powerful cities in Essos — Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh — essentially united in their love of trade and hatred of Westeros. Since the very first episode of House of the Dragon, we’ve heard about how the Triarchy has had its sights set on the Stepstones, much to Corlys Velaryon’s (Steve Toussaint) chagrin. However, with the Sea Snake now on Team Black, that’s opened a door for Team Green to send an emissary to the Triarchy to negotiate an alliance. Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) is the lucky fellow and after tense negotiations, mud wrestling, and more, he manages to win the Triarchy, and more importantly, Sharako Lohar, to his cause.

Sharako Lohar is a colorful character in George R.R. Martin’s books, but in House of the Dragon, she is something altogether more delightfully chaotic. She razzes Tyland with threats of cannibalism, purposely mixes up his name, and eventually tells the awkward lord of Westeros that she wishes to have children by him.

“You — you want me to…” Tyland stutters back.

“Indeed,” Sharako says. “I want you to fuck my wives.”

“How many wives do you have?” Tyland replies.

And that’s all we get until we see them again on the prow of a Triarchy war ship at the end of the episode.

“I ‘ship them so hard,” House of the Dragon actress Abigail Thorn told Decider over Zoom this week. “I’m all in on them together.”

Abigail Thorn is an actress and podcaster who shot to online fame for her YouTube channel, Philosophy Tube. As Sharako Lohar, she’s now a key part of the battles set to come on House of the Dragon Season 3. As the Admiral of the Triarchy’s fleet, Lohar is leading a massive charge towards the gullet…where Dragonstone, Driftmark, and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) are currently in charge.

Decider talked to Thorn about the lengthy process nabbing her House of the Dragon gig, what she makes of the Triarchy leaders initially misgendering Lohar, and the intimate details of what exactly Sharako intends to do with Tyland and her wives…

DECIDER: Well, first of all, I love your character’s introduction to the show and the finale. I thought you just popped and you were so much fun. We love a girl who can mud wrestle and command fleets. I listened to Ryan’s press conference on Monday and he mentioned that they loved your audition from the get go. And I’m just curious, what was it like auditioning for this role? How much did they tell you? What were the clues on the sides that told you how you wanted to play this character? Because she’s quite the character.

ABIGAIL THORN: Gosh, that’s so sweet of Ryan to say. That’s lovely of him. There were three rounds of auditions. The first one, it was a fake script and we didn’t know what the show was. We were pretty sure it was House of The Dragon, but not certain. They told me she’s a tiny part, she’s only got two lines. I was like, “Okay.” I recorded my self-tape and sent it in. Then they said, “There’s going to be a recall and it’s going to be with the head producers and the director and one of the lead actors and the head of casting.” And I was like, “Oh, this isn’t a small role. This is one of those things where they tell you it’s a small role and it’s not.” So I went in. I was outside the audition room — the second one was in person — and I was listening in to the candidate before me and thinking, like, “No, no, no, no. I wouldn’t do it that way. No, no. Come on, you’ve got to give it to me.” 

I went in there and Ryan said, “It’s Sharako Lohar,” and I was like, Oh, okay. She’s the commander of the Triarchy. All right. Got it. Let’s go.” I had done my prep. I knew what I was doing. And I knew I wanted to give him something I hadn’t seen before, which is why I only watched three episodes of Season 1 before I went in and then I cut myself off. I said, “I don’t want to give them just another House of the Dragon character,” you know? I want to give him a fresh take on it.

I did some improv with Jefferson in the scene. I met him for the first time and he was really lovely. I spoke to Geeta about the way that I like to work and she said that fit with the way she liked to work. I had a great time with that audition. Then a couple of weeks later I got a good call that said there’s a third round. Let’s do it all again. Then at that time, it was on video. We just did the scene again and they just redirected me.

In terms of what helped build the character, the comedy was there from the start. The scene they gave me to audition with in the second round was the scene immediately after the mud fight, which they talk about eating human flesh. Which is quite a difficult, like 1-2-3 beat change. So we worked on getting that beat, right? 

The comedy of it’s there from the start but, but I wanted to figure out what’s underneath that. What motivates her? Because if her motivation in the scene is just, “I’m gonna mess with this guy,” then, okay, but why? What does she get out of doing this? So try to figure out where the seriousness in her sits was my job really not only in the second round of auditions and beyond, but also in the rehearsals that we did.

Yeah, you mentioned the mud wrestling scene. That is so much fun and it’s so wild. What was it like to shoot that? How many of the slips were choreographed? And how many of them were organic? And how does one clean up after that?

[Laughing] It was a long, long day. I was up at 4 a.m. for that one. Luckily the HBO team are all fantastic. They kept us going with hot chocolate and coffee and all the rest of it. I drank so much lemon and ginger and honey over the course of that day to get the energy up. And I had done a lot of prep beforehand to make sure that I was physically fit and ready to go. We’d also done a lot of work with the stunt team developing the fight from their initial sketches to certain moments that I wanted to bring in. I think that the backhand that marks the end of the fight was my suggestion and I was really pleased that they listened to me in that.

So, on the day we got out there, they had the animals. They had the eagle and the goat and the horses and everything. It was fascinating. We got in the mud — real mud, not chocolate syrup. They filtered it all to take the little bits of stones and glass and stuff out of it, but it was real mud and we got in there and we did it all day until we ran out of life. In terms of getting clean, I had two showers. One was in the trailer, then I had another one when I got home, and then I had dirt under my fingernails for about two weeks after that. Just scrubbing it out with a nail brush.

Well, obviously Tyland impresses Lohar, because at dinner she asks him to sleep with all her wives to have babies. I’m just curious about the wives. Do you know how many there are? Is it a harem situation? Is it more of a polygamy thing? Are some love matches, some political matches?

Well, there’s wives and there’s wives, aren’t there? I figure that maybe by the time we see them again on the prow of the ship, maybe Tyland is one of the wives at that point, you know? A wife could be many things. I think some of the wives are probably more serious than others. Some probably on the periphery come and go. I imagine there’s one or two who are a bit closer to her heart and see the real Sharako. So that was the situation we got through there.

I’m pretty sure that when she says, “I want you to fuck my wives,” I think she’s gonna be involved in that. I don’t think she’s going to be like outside while that’s happening. I think it’s a “Come fuck my wives with me,” you know? 

I asked Geeta and Sara, I was like, “These wives, they are here consensually, right?” And they were like, “Yes, don’t worry. That’s part of it.” And I was like, “Great, okay, good.” That’s important. Just good to know. Good to clarify that.

Well, thinking of which, throughout world history, there are harem cultures and different approaches to gender and sexuality. You’re a woman playing a woman, but right before we even meet you, the Triarchy calls Lohar a “he.” Are they trying to haze Tyland or do they see gender differently in the Triarchy? How did you interpret them? Telling Tyland that he had to measure up to a dude?

Well, they, say “he/him.” They don’t necessarily say “guy.” Which is interesting. Sharako is really the culmination of some of the themes that we have in Season 2 of the show because women coming into our power is a big part of it. For example, Rhaenyra’s arc through the series is realizing that she’s got to go and pick up a sword and fight herself. There’s a lot of moments of her in the castle being treated as a precious doll by her advisors and so on and she rebels against this.  And I think Sharako embodies those themes by being a woman who doesn’t do what women are typically expected to do in our society. She leads men, she fights, she sexually pursues women and men, and she doesn’t take any crap from anyone.

I think the leaders of the Triarchy are like, “Yeah, she must be some kind of guy. I mean, let’s not bring it up because if we say, ‘Hey, get back in the kitchen!’, she’ll kill us. You know, she’s carrying like eight knives and a sword. Let’s not go there.” If you say, “Make me a sandwich with one of those,” it’s gonna end up in your eye socket. I think most of the time they’re just like, “Let’s just let her do her thing.” I don’t think Sharako particularly gives a damn what the people think of her or what they all say about her.

Interesting question I wondered is: Does Sharako top or bottom? [Laughing] 

I mean, maybe it depends on the wife?

That’s what I think, too.

You were talking about how you got to do improv with Jefferson in the audition. Those two characters, Tyland and Lohar, they’re kind of being set up as a really funny pair of buddies.

I ‘ship them so hard. I’m all in on them together.

What was it like working with Jefferson on set? And what does he help give to your performance?

Jefferson’s amazing. He’s so funny. The little details, the little things he does just before they call, “Action.” I just sit there and watch him do it. He inspires such confidence. There was a moment that we shot the banquet scene. I’ll admit there was a little bit of nerves for me. Because I was like, “Okay, well, you know, here we are on the biggest show in the world, Abigail, and it’s yours to lose.” So I was a little nervy. At the end of day one, we’d done a lot of stuff on me, my coverage, and they said, “Right, that’s it. We’re wrapped for today.” And Jefferson stood up, and he could have just walked out, and he just went, “Cracking work today.” That meant so much that he did that. He’s a lovely guy. He’s extremely talented and very hard working. Like, he’s just cracking. He made me feel really confident.

And just the energy that he throws off, of this sort of nervous, out of his depth, fish out of water, posh boy. I was just standing there like, “I’m gonna rock this guy’s world.” They’re this great double act.

I want him to go back to the Small Council and just be like, “You guys all said that I was worth nothing, but here’s my girlfriend and she’s queen of the pirates. Fuck you!” And I go, “That’s right, babe! Fuck them up!”