Olivia Cooke Discusses Alicent’s Complex Emotions After Otto’s Execution

New episodes of the fantasy drama House of the Dragon have been airing on HBO every Sunday, and fans are eagerly awaiting the next installment. The show picked up this season with Alicent Hightower, played by Olivia Cooke, surrendering her sons’ rights to the crown in favor of their older half-sister and former best friend, Rhaenyra.

One of Rhaenyra’s first moves as queen is to publicly behead Otto, the man she blames for the coup against her. This shocking event has left Alicent emotionally stunned, and Olivia Cooke recently spoke about her character’s complex emotions in a recent interview.

‘It’s devastating to not have Rhys in my daily life, so I’ll be more devastated not to have him on set,’ Olivia Cooke said about working with Rhys Ifans, who played her character’s manipulative father, Otto. ‘As for Alicent, when she sees him slain on the floor? She hasn’t heard from him for a very long time and, so, she doesn’t know where he’s been, and she’s wondering, ‘Has Rhaenyra imprisoned him and has she brought him out to sort of do her most showy political act as the new ruler?’

Olivia Cooke explained that Alicent’s emotions are twofold: she’s experiencing great mourning for the loss of her father, but also a lot of anger in the shocking and disrespectful way that he was executed. ‘So, it’s twofold,’ she said. ‘There’s a great mourning that happens. But there is also a lot of anger in the shocking, incredibly disrespectful way that was done.’

Freddie Fox Discusses Gwayne’s Complex Relationship with Otto

Freddie Fox, who plays Alicent’s big brother, Gwayne, also spoke about his character’s complex emotions regarding Otto’s execution. Gwayne has a very complex relationship with the idea of his father because he never really knew him and, yet, he has a kind of hero worship and lionization of him and what he stands for.

‘Gwayne has a very complex relationship with the idea of his father because he never really knew him and, yet, I think that’s an idea of kind of hero worship and lionization of him and what he stands for, what he could have been and, then, also kind of an inertia, really, around the idea he never actually got to know him and kind of abandoned him,’ Freddie Fox said.

Olivia Cooke also explained that Alicent didn’t make the decision to let Rhaenyra kill her badly disfigured son Aegon as part of their peace treaty. ‘She has sort of weighed up all the offers she actually could have made to Rhaenyra and I think she tried to give sort offers that had lesser personal stakes, but she knew that she had to offer Aegon’s head because that’s the only way people transfer their loyalty to Rhaenyra,’ she said.

James Norton Joins the Cast as Alicent and Gwayne’s Cousin

This season also introduces James Norton as Alicent and Gwayne’s cousin. Olivia Cooke praised James Norton’s performance, saying that he is ‘fantastic’ in his role and ‘seizes it with both hands and his teeth.’

Freddie Fox also spoke about James Norton’s character, saying that he has a lot of prior history with Gwayne based on bullying, but also a kind of tacit respect for each other’s intelligence. ‘I don’t know whether I can spoil it, probably not, so I won’t. But there’s another character who comes into the story and is of great importance to them both and they both have this very set vision about what this person should be doing and I think my vision is better,’ Freddie Fox said.