Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) has been reminding people of Cersei from Game of Thrones from all the new teasers and clips for House of the Dragon. It is good and evil that these women will go to any lengths necessary to get what they want. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Olivia Cooke said the showrunners, Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, described Alicent as “She’s like a woman for Trump” before the rehearsals even began.
House of the Dragon reflects the real world in how patriarchal and misogynistic it can be. The series shows the internal politics from a woman’s point of view by putting the dynamic of two women in the center of the entire mess. And the older Alicent might be more assertive, but she still has internalized misogyny.
Olivia Cooke doesn’t want to justify everything her character does.” “She does some fucking despicable stuff,” the actress admits.” “But then you’ve got to think; she’s trying to protect her son. She’s trying to uphold the patriarchy. She’ss trying to uphold the legitimacy of the crown. All these things that she feels are so much bigger than she is. I think that’s why when she can’t control that, she turns to faith more as some sort of tangible element of control, because she doesn’t have any in her life whatsoever.”
Olivia explains how she did not want to give the Trump family and their actions any more space in her mind.” “So I tried to find a different route into her, but I could see what they were saying with this complete indoctrination and denial of her own autonomy and rights. I just couldn’t be asked to go down that road.”
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Understanding Queen Alicent
While Emma D’Arcy says Rhaenyra is trying to push the boundaries of womanhood, Olivia understands how her character is fighting with herself. On the one hand, she has to be queenly and feminine, but no one in the Red Keep takes her seriously” “Alicent has been completely bred to breed, and to breed powerful men. That’s her only function in this life,” Cooke said.
“She can tell herself that she’s going to sway and nurture and persuade in a very womanly, feminine way, but it’s all fucking bullshit. Unless you’re fighting the men, you’ll never be heard. It’s learning to live within this straightjacket of oppression. How do I move inch by inch every single day to loosen the straps”
Cooke goes on about how no one has Alicent’s back” “[Rhaenyra] was her only friend, and she’s so lonely. She’s got all these men around her that just want a piece of her, or want to use her in a specific way, but no one actually has her best interest. It’s just a really lonely existence” She believes that while the King turns a blind eye to Rhaenyra, Alicent always has to walk on a tightrope.” Just the injustice of it that she feels until things happen, and she realizes that none of it fucking matters. She looks around her family, and they’re all fucked up” The actress continues, “She’s like,’ I’ve been so perfect all my life. I haven’t taken a step wrong, and it doesn’t fucking matter” I think what we see in her evolution is this complete existential crisis.”
