Olivia Cooke talks landing the role of Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon

We’re getting more info about HBO’s Game of Thrones successor show House of the Dragon, straight from one of the lead actors!

Game of Thrones will soon be two years gone, but HBO is hard at work on its successor: House of the Dragon is coming in 2022, and will tell the story of a Targaryen civil war that tore the realm apart over 100 years before the events of the main series.

We already know a few of the actors who will be involved, including Doctor Who veteran Matt Smith as the dangerous Daemon Targaryen, Emma D’Arcy as the proud Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, who is locked with Rhaenrya in a battle for the Iron Throne.

Well, technically, Alicent’s son Aegon Targaryen is fighting with Rhaenrya, his half-sister, for the throne, but as you’ll find out when the show premieres, there are lots of fascinating family dynamics at play, much like in Game of Thrones.

Anyway, Cooke recently talked to Variety about getting the role. “When I read the script, I hadn’t seen any Game of Thrones,” she revealed. “But then I binged it and now I’m obsessed.”

“I had to do so many self-tapes,” she remembered of the audition process. “I was on hold for ages.” Cooke was officially offered the job in October, but of course, this being a Game of Thrones show, she was sworn to secrecy. “People would ask, ‘What’s up for you next?’ and I’d have to be like, ‘Nothing.’”

If the show blows up like its predecessor, that ability to keep secrets should serve her well.

But first they actually have to film it, and while she’s read some scripts and seen the wardrobe people at least once, that’s still to come. “I’ve had one sort of preliminary fitting when they just draped some fabric on me but that was it,” Cooke said. We should know more soon.

In the meantime, you can see Cooke do her thing in movies like Sound of Metal, about a heavy metal drummer who starts to go deaf. Cooke plays the lead singer of the band. “The singing is just like screaming,” she said. “You just scream. We did that performance about eight times, and then I completely lost my voice. You do it until you lose your voice.”

Sound of Metal, which is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video, actually looks pretty cool and is getting awards buzz. And of course, it’s great that Cooke is willing to commit that hard to a role.

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