House of the Dragon's Olivia Cooke Sheds Some Light on Alicent's State of Mind

House of the Dragon play two has lone dropped two episodes truthful far, but some Team Green and Team Black person already been done the affectional wringer arsenic the Dance of the Dragons heats up. At the halfway of the maelstrom is Alicent Hightower; arsenic the Dowager Queen and parent of King Aegon II, she’s 1 of the astir almighty radical successful Westeros, but that doesn’t mean she has immoderate consciousness of control.

io9 spoke to Alicent herself—Olivia Cooke—as portion of a caller House of the Dragon property day, and asked her astir a circumstantial infinitesimal successful last night’s episode, “Rhaenyra the Cruel.”

It’s an action-packed episode; we spot Alicent (once again) being utilized arsenic a governmental pawn by her father, Hand of the King Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), and made a focal constituent of the grim ceremonial extravaganza surrounding her murdered grandson. Then, we spot Alicent dealing with the contiguous fallout aft her begetter is fired arsenic Hand of the King by her petulent son, King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney).

At the extremity of the episode, Alicent—who’s been little than impressed with the behaviour of some Aegon and his younger brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell)— observes Aegon sitting alone, sobbing his eyes out. Instead of moving to comfortableness him, she watches him for conscionable a beat, past silently exits the room. “I deliberation Aemond and Aegon specifically clasp the reflector [up] to the elements of herself that she despises,” Cooke said astir Alicent’s reaction. “And I deliberation his vulnerability successful that moment, and his ineffectiveness, conscionable repulses her. It truly does. I deliberation she sees everything that’s anemic successful him [as the aforesaid arsenic what’s] incredibly weak—and [that] she’s trying to get a lid on—in herself. I deliberation that was it. But he’s grieving arsenic well, and she doesn’t privation to beryllium confronted with that truthful immediately. She wants her lad to regularisation and she wants to person bred a leader. And she hasn’t astatine all.”

io9 besides got a accidental to inquire Cooke astir a quality who’ll soon beryllium arriving successful House of the Dragon play two: Alicent’s brother, Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox). “[Their narration is] is estranged. It’s truly estranged. She didn’t turn up with him; helium was brought up successful Oldtown, she was brought up astatine court,” Cooke teased. “I deliberation it’s Alicent, again, hopeless for transportation and community, and trying to forge that successful a mode that conscionable isn’t imaginable due to the fact that they don’t person a shared language. I deliberation that causes her a batch of pain, particularly seeing however well-adjusted helium is, and however well-adjusted helium is due to the fact that he’s been distant from this environment.”

House of the Dragon drops caller episodes Sundays connected HBO and Max.

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