“She’s coming to terms with, ‘Oh my god, I have been so wrong,” Cooke told GQ of the HBO series’ season finale.
Last week’s finale of “House of the Dragon,” while certainly leaving us wanting more, did manage to tie up one loose thread by finally acknowledging where Alicent’s loyalties lies.
Traveling to Dragonstone to meet with Rhaenyra in secret, she offers to surrender King’s Landing in exchange for her family’s safety, but the would-be Queen refuses to accept without Alicent also agreeing to the death of her son, Aegon, an action she begrudgingly accepts. In a recent interview with GQ, the actress behind Alicent, Olivia Cooke, discussed her approach to the scene and what it means for her character going forward.
“I played it as truthful,” Cooke said. “I think she knows going in that she’s going to have to give up Aegon, but I think there’s a part of her that wishes she could bargain that one last time, in order for that not to happen. But she knows there’s gonna be no merit in that. But I did come at it from a place of truth, and last resort, and Alicent being like, ‘I have nothing else up my sleeve. This is it. All I want is for my daughter and myself to be safe.’”
Cooke believes Alicent’s offering to Rhaenyra was a complete “ego death” that stems back to her misinterpretation and possible corruption of her husband Viserys’ final wishes.
“I think there’s a real reckoning in episodes four, five, and six,” Cooke said, “where she’s coming to terms with, ‘Oh my god, I have been so wrong, and I wrongly put my son on the throne because I misinterpreted my ailing husband.’ I think by the time Alicent gets to Rhaenyra, she knows that she’s made a massive, massive mistake.”
The actress adds that there was almost a religious element to Alicent approaching Rhaenyra at this moment and in this way.
“It’s like a confessional, in a way,” She said to GQ. “The biggest confessional that Alicent can put herself through.”
Cooke described her and co-star Emma D’Arcy’s approach as “trying to find the music within the scene.” She went on to express how she relied on D’Arcy to modulate her emotions both in relation to the moment they were existing in and in the context of this being the season finale of a major TV series.
“I was just imploring them to, if they feel that there’s something missing, please just direct me, because they’re the one that is reacting off what I’m doing,” Cooke said of working with D’Arcy. “So I just wanted them to have an extra eye on the scene, and if there’s a beat that I’m not picking up, to grab it. They said the same back, even though I couldn’t ever give Emma notes, because they’re so amazing. And also like, the pressure of knowing that this was the finale, and wanting it to feel as full-bodied and satisfying as possible, for the meeting of these two women who have been adrift from each other all season.”