Posted in: Game Of Thrones, HBO, streaming, TV | Tagged: game of thrones, HBO, hbo max, house of the dragon, Milly Alcock, Rhaenyra Targaryen

House of the Dragon Star Milly Alcock on Finding Rhaenyra's Voice

Milly Alcock is going to make the best of her opportunity in the Game of Thrones universe, playing Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen in the HBO prequel series House of the Dragon. She's playing the younger incarnation of the character that will be taken over by Emma D'Arcy, who plays her older counterpart. The actress opened up about getting cast, how it exceeded far beyond her expectations, and more.

"I got the call, and I obviously couldn't tell anyone and I just kind of like sank to the ground," Alcock told The Hollywood Reporter. "I asked my friend if he had any wine, and I couldn't really tell him why. He thought something really awful had happened. He was like: 'Someone's sick, someone's dead, something catastrophic has happened.' I couldn't tell anyone for so long." As far as initial expectations from the role, the actress discovered it went beyond flashbacks and would be a significant one early in the high fantasy series. "I was surprised," she said. "I was just really shocked."

Alcock got a crash course on Game of Thrones since she was only 10 when it first premiered on HBO and binged the series before filming. "It felt like that I had been literally picked up from Australia, and someone had just dropped me in the middle of, like, the ocean with nothing around," she said, describing the 35,000 square foot set for the Red Keep. "I'd done Aussie television where our whole show's budget is less than one episode [of Dragon]. I'd never been on a hundred-million-dollar set like that before. So there was a lot of responsibility of having to carry Rhaenyra, and it was interesting because me and Rhaenyra had similar trajectories in our story — the way that we kind of navigated an unforeseen world we really expected to be in and learned how to face those challenges."

For more on how Alcock broke down the lighting for the show, bonding with castmates Emily Carey (Young Alicent Hightower) and Fabian Frankel (Ser Criston Cole), riding dragons, and more, you can check out the whole interview here. New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays on HBO and stream on HBO Max.

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