When Olivia Cooke landed the role of Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon, the feeling wasn't quite jubilation... but one of dread.
House of the Dragon season 3 is currently in the middle of production, and at the same time, star Cooke is also promoting her new Amazon Prime Video series The Girlfriend. It's a busy time for her. Since landing the role of Alicent, she's been in the spotlight more than ever.
Olivia Cooke talks pressures of House of the Dragon
During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Cooke recalled the specific moment her career took a turn: when she was officially cast in the Game of Thrones prequel.
"It was 2020, in the depths of lockdown. It was months of auditioning and I got a call. My phone was plugged in by the wall, and I was crouching in the corner of my apartment as all my agents were on the phone like, 'You're life's about to change, baby,'" she recalled. "And I just felt immediate dread."
When Fallon asked her to elaborate on the feeling of dread, she explained why. "Because then you have to do it," she said. "It felt like a gargantuan job."
Naturally, she can't talk about what's exactly in store in season 3, but she revealed that the scale of this season is bigger than ever. "A lot of pressure. It's big this one... bigger," she teased.
And while Alicent isn't a dragonrider, Cooke is keen on becoming one, as she expressed on the late night show. "Ride it like a bucking bronco," she joked. "It'd be great." Fun, perhaps, but not in keeping with the show.
Filming intimate scenes
Also, in a recent interview with The i Paper, Cooke weighed in on filming sex scenes. She noted the importance of intimacy directors in the industry nowadays, and how they've become a “voice” for women who are filming such scenes. “It’s amazing to me that people had to just fudge their way through those scenes before those people existed,” she stated.
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She also noted that intimacy directors are particularly useful for those “just starting out and don’t have the vocabulary to say what they’re not comfortable with.”
“Showing intimacy, passion is an integral part of reflecting the human experience,” she said, adding that these scenes can be filmed without feeling like “a chunk of yourself has been taken.”
House of the Dragon season 3 began filming in March, and it's expected to wrap in October. The season then enters months of post-production. We can expect to see the season release sometime next year. While you wait, you can catch Cooke in The Girlfriend, now streaming on Prime Video.