Olivia Cooke on power, class and divided audiences in House of the Dragon

House of the Dragon has become a massive television phenomenon, and Olivia Cooke remembers her father discovering it with bemused approval. Sitting in London on a stormy afternoon, she shows a text and a photo of his TV ready for a binge: “Raining outside, so starting a binge-watch,” he wrote, later adding, “Yes, I like it.

Quite violent.” Cooke, who grew up in Oldham, moved to Vancouver at 18 to join Bates Motel, spent unhappy but busy years in New York, then returned to London before the pandemic; she has appeared in Ready Player One, Sound of Metal, Vanity Fair and Slow Horses, but says House of the Dragon, where she plays Alicent Hightower, has been a gamechanger.

Alicent’s journey is complicated: childhood best friends with Rhaenyra, she marries King Viserys, bears morally dubious heirs, goes to war and, by the finale, makes a deal that involves giving up her son to support Rhaenyra’s claim. Cooke rejects the idea that Alicent has time to reflect on her feelings, and notes the character has divided viewers.

United Kingdom, London

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