In a recent conversation with BGN, Abigail Thorn opened up about stepping into the role of Sharako Lohar, a character defined by power, pain, and an all-consuming mission of vengeance.
When BGN asked whether Sharako believes she is making the right choices or simply surviving, Thorn didn’t hesitate to locate the character in a far more dangerous emotional space.
“She is so focused on her mission of vengeance against the Sea Snake,” Thorn explained, “that she’s willing to sacrifice anything—anything—to get there.” That singular drive, she noted, doesn’t just shape Sharako’s actions. It defines her entire authority.
Sharako, as Thorn describes her, is not merely a warrior navigating chaos — she is a commander who has had to fight to be believed. Leading a host of men who do not question her authority is not incidental; it is something hard-won. The power she holds is inseparable from the struggle it took to claim it.
But beneath that control is something far more volatile.
Thorn revealed that she modeled Sharako on literary and cinematic figures defined by obsession and internal fracture, citing Captain Ahab from Moby Dick and Ricardo Montalbán’s iconic turn as Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
“Because that’s very inspired by Ahab and Moby Dick,” she said. “She has this charm and sophistication on the surface, and underneath there’s this real pain and rage.”
At the heart of Sharako’s vengeance, Thorn suggests, is not just anger but fear. A fear of what remains when the mission is over.
“I think what she’s afraid of is staying as that person,” she added. “She believes that if she can just kill her white whale… she could go home, and she won’t have to do this anymore.”
It’s a striking contradiction: a woman driven forward by rage, while simultaneously imagining a peaceful life she may never be able to return to.
Thorn also connected Sharako’s internal world to her physicality, particularly in how the character moves through violence and intimacy. After seeing the fight choreography, she realized it revealed something deeper than combat style, it exposed emotional distance.
“That moment tells me so much about her relationship with intimacy,” Thorn said, “her relationship with her body… probably her relationship with sex.”
Then came one of the most blunt, revealing character insights of the interview:
“One of the earliest things I discovered about her character… is that I think she stinks,” Thorn added candidly. “I don’t think she wants anyone to touch her or come near her.”
It’s a harsh, almost humorous detail — but one that underscores Sharako Lohar’s emotional isolation. She is a leader surrounded by followers, a warrior defined by control, and a person actively resisting closeness of any kind.
Through Thorn’s lens, Sharako Lohar becomes something more complicated than a traditional figure of vengeance. She is a study in contradiction: powerful yet guarded, commanding yet deeply fractured, certain of her mission while secretly dreaming of an exit that may not exist.
Season 3 of House of the Dragon debuts June 21st on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Max
