Why Olivia Cook doesn’t see Alicent Hightower as a villain

A couple years after Game of Thrones ended, House of the Dragon introduced us to a whole new set of medieval warriors and schemers. That includes Alicent Hightower, the mother of the newly crowned Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, King Aegon II Targaryen…although his half-sister Rhaenyra Targaryen may have something to say about that.

The game is afoot, and Alicent will have a key role to play. As actor Olivia Cooke told Backstage, a lot of fans have already pigeonholed her in the “villain” role, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.

“With House of the Dragon, I think people have really set [Alicent] up to be the villain. I just don’t think she is at all,” Cooke said. “Number one, I think it’d be incredibly shortsighted to play any character like a villain. But there’s so much empathy that I have for her. She’s incredibly antagonistic at times, but I just don’t see her as that black-and-white villain that I think a lot of people see her as.”

Olivia Cooke doesn’t see her House of the Dragon character as a villain

Alicent had an up-and-down journey on the first season of House of the Dragon. She started the series as best friends with Rhaenrya Targaryen, but they ended the season as bitter rivals. There were some bumps in the road, but Olivia Cooke’s performance was excellent throughout.

As for the rest of the interview, Cooke had some interesting opinions on the things that great directors have in common:

"They make you feel like you came up with the best ideas when, really, they came up with the best ideas—so you feel great doing everything. But really, they’re just incredibly humble and generous. They’re incredible at reading people, as well. They have the wherewithal to let you run through all your ideas, and then they go, “Yeah, great, great, great.” Because sometimes, all an actor wants to do is go, “OK, I’ve been thinking about this all night; here’s X, Y, and Z of why I think this is going to happen.” And maybe it doesn’t pertain to the scene that you’re doing, exactly. But they will make you think that you’re able to incorporate that in what they want you to do. Sometimes, it doesn’t necessarily get in, but you feel emboldened and confident anyway."

Hopefully there’s a lot of that happening on the set of House of the Dragon.

And finally, Cooke named the biggest regret of her career:

"Oh, probably getting [on] Instagram. But then I got [on] it again. I hate it, and I hate myself when I have to do stuff on it and feed the beast."

I think by this point a lot of people are familiar with the the idea of a love-hate relationship with social media. In any case, expect more episodes of House of the Dragon to air sometime in 2024.

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