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Peter Claffey shares the screen for a majority of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms with a child actor 18 years younger than him.
The HBO show, a Game of Thrones spinoff based on a series of novellas by George R. R. Martin, follows Claffey’s Ser Duncan and his squire, Egg, played by Dexter Soll Ansell. Ansell was just 9 at the time of filming, and Claffey, 29, but PEOPLE, “He might be 9 by the government or by years, but he’s got a very old head on him.”
Ansell, now 11, was “born to perform,” Claffey says. “He’s just at ease.”
When the costars made an appearance at New York City Comic Con in October, for example, Claffey says his younger costar didn’t even seem nervous. “He’s at home with that stuff, and he’s just born to do this.”
Steffan Hill/HBO
Claffey’s childhood growing up in Ireland was completely different from what Ansell is experiencing, so he says he’s doing everything he can to keep the young actor “grounded.”
“My childhood was very small-town Ireland, a lot of sports and a lot of different things,” he says. “I’m trying to keep him grounded — that is my main priority — because he is a really good, good-hearted, kind kid.”
“I know he’s going to have an incredible, incredible career ahead of him,” Claffey continues.
For now, the actor is “just trying to bestow what little wisdom I can on him to try and prolong how he gets on with stuff.”
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Production on season 2 is currently underway — the show was renewed before season 1 even premiered — and Claffey says he and Ansell “have a really good working relationship.”
“It just feels like home every time we get into a scene [together]. I’m really lucky, really fortunate to get to work with him.”
Steffan Hill/HBO
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall (Claffey), who is described as a “naïve but courageous knight,” and his “diminutive” squire, Egg (Ansell), per HBO.
The six-episode series unfolds about a century before Game of Thrones begins, and sees Dunk and Egg face “great destinies, powerful foes and dangerous exploits.”
New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms drop Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO
