The new Alicent Hightower, Olivia Cooke, said she received direction from House of the Dragon showrunners to be like a “woman for Trump.”

In Episode 6 of House of the Dragon, two new actors will be replacing the younger actors who played Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, among others. Olivia Cooke, who will take over for Emily Carey as Alicent, received some interesting advice from the showrunners as far as how to portray Queen Alicent.

According to an EW interview including both Emma D’arcy and Olivia Cooke, the latter said the showrunners told her to portray Alicent as a “woman for Trump.” Cooke said she understood what the showrunners meant but didn’t want to give the Trump family any more space in her head.

“Cooke remembers one direction Condal and Sapochnik gave her for the role of Queen Alicent: “She’s like a woman for Trump.””

“‘House of the Dragon’ stars Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke discuss stepping into the roles of Rhaenyra and Alicent and how different they are to their younger counterparts.”

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D’arcy and Cooke apparently hit it off when they first began working together, with D’arcy giving their co-star high praise.

“You know those chance meetings where there’s a familiarity? For some unknown reason, I really felt that with Liv,” D’Arcy, 30, explains. “It was like we had the right language to speak to each other immediately, and that doesn’t always happen.” Cooke agrees, “We hit it off right away.” The other emotion was more of a sobering tonic. “It was the first moment where I was like, ‘Oh Christ, man. This might actually happen,'” D’Arcy says of the reality of the show setting in. “We all got our offers, having never met anyone in person because it was COVID, and protocol was so tight. I hadn’t met anyone new for about a year. It was a really, really surreal evening.”

Cooke talked about how she personally prepared for the role before delving deeper into the advice she received from Condal and Sapochnik.

“I was shown almost like memories: scenes that Emily had done with [King Viserys actor] Paddy [Considine],” Cooke describes. “I had those memories locked in my brain for when I’m doing a scene that mirrors that relationship.” But ultimately, the adult versions of these characters have evolved quite a bit out of their teen years. Adds Cooke, “Ten years or 15 years on, whenever it is, I think it’s about this power in finding your womanhood.”

Olivia Cooke then went on to talk more about how she received the advice.

Cooke remembers one direction Condal and Sapochnik gave her for the role of Queen Alicent: “She’s like a woman for Trump.”

“I just didn’t want to give them any more mental real estate than they already had,” the actress says of that particular family. “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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