Image via HBO
Spoilers for the first five episodes of House of the Dragon below.
Out of all the great parts of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, Milly Alcock is the most compelling. The 22-year-old Australian actress playing a young version of Rhaenyra Targaryen has set screens ablaze with her magnetic performance. A relative unknown—her most notable performance prior to Dragon came in Upright, an Australian dramedy airing in the United States on AMC+—she’s certainly made a name for herself throughout the past five weeks. Alcock commands the scenes she’s in, infusing Rhaenyra with a naturalistic, lived-in quality that makes it feel like she has played the role for years.
But to quote Thrones, her watch has ended; starting in next week’s episode, Dragon will age up both Rhaenyra and Alicent Hightower—replacing Alcock and Emily Carey with Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, respectively—in a significant time jump. HBO’s marketing for the series is pretty transparent around this, but given how incredible Alcock is, it’s disappointing to see her depart. The role is a game-changer for Alcock, who views the experience as “completely life-changing in every aspect.” While the show will remain compelling moving forward, we can’t help but feel bummed that such a talent is exiting so soon.
A few weeks ago, Complex jumped on the phone with Alcock for a wide-ranging conversation about her time on House of the Dragon, including those intimate scenes with Daemon Targaryen actor Matt Smith in the fourth episode, participating in a famed Game of Thrones universe wedding, transitioning to a project as big as this, taking music recommendations from actors Paddy Considine & Rhys Ifans, and much more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I can’t even begin to imagine how crazy things are for you, having gone right from filming House of the Dragon into Upright’s second season and then doing a press tour. Have you had a chance to sit down and really take stock of everything? What have the last few weeks been like for you?
Milly Alcock: It’s like constantly moving around, being in different places, hotels, cities, and countries. It’s really exhausting but ultimately extremely exciting and overwhelming. It’s every emotion under the sun all at once, all the time. [Laughs.]
Everything, everywhere, all at once.
Yeah, exactly.
What was it like to move into a production of this size and scale?
It was incredibly overwhelming. I was on the other side of the world in a global pandemic living on my own, doing potentially the biggest show ever. So it was extremely overwhelming. But ultimately, you quickly realize that it kind of works the same. It took me a good three months to get used to it. It was quite disorienting ‘cause I didn’t know—’cause I like, “Oh, shit. I need to go to the doctor’s. How do you get in at NHS?” It was all these little things that were just a lot of new challenges, basically.
Were the more tenured cast members helpful in helping you get adjusted?
Most of the older cast, especially, saw I was young and in a different country, and they really felt for me. So they all looked out for me. I made some great friends along the way—me and Fabien [Frankel, who plays Ser Criston Cole] are quite close—which made my experience a lot more inviting and lovely. It felt like we became a little family over shooting the show. They have my back ultimately, which is really reassuring.
Image via HBO
Did you get all of your scripts upfront?
I think I got sent the first two and then got sent the rest of them, but they were being amended all the time, as that’s what happens when you’re on a show.
But you at least had the broad strokes of Rhaenyra’s arc right away?
Yeah, but that was only after I’d been cast and everything.
What was it that jumped out to you right away about Rhaenyra’s arc? Was there a specific thing that you were like, “OK, I could hold onto this”?
I think that on a really simplistic scale, House of the Dragon is about a relationship between an especially dysfunctional family. I think that 95 percent of people live in dysfunctional families, you know? So I could really hold onto what that was like.
I think she has the strength within her that I recognized within myself. So centering Rhaenyra’s beliefs became something I held onto and tried to project in every scene.
Were there opportunities for you to find moments to play around and find new aspects of a given scene, or was it pretty by the book?
It’s pretty by the book, but I got a few in. It ultimately depended on who we were working with that day because every director works completely different and has a different structural understanding in how to create a scene. We were working together as a team, but there were a few little lines that I noticed in the final edit that slipped in.
It’s difficult to improvise because the language isn’t a language that I’m familiar with because it’s a period drama in a world that isn’t Earth. So there were a few like “Sorry” and “Thank you” and things that kind of made it to the final cut that really just emphasizes Rhaenyra’s moral compass and her ability to empathize with other people in their situations.
I imagine it’s hard to just improv in Valyrian right off the cuff.
[Laughs.] Oh no. Yeah, you can’t do that. You just wouldn’t know what to say.
Outside of those improvs, was there a small detail you were able to work into your portrayal that we wouldn’t know about? Like maybe something in the costuming?
There’s nothing that I specifically asked for in that regard because I didn’t really know that I had that ability in that capacity. It’s such a huge show; you’re working with the best in the world. I’m not the big actor, I haven’t worked on a lot of jobs, so I put my hands into Jany [Temime], who did our costumes. There’s a thread of dragon scales that goes through a lot of Rhaenyra’s costumes. I think that’s a really beautiful detail that she emphasizes in a lot of her outfits but there’s nothing that I specifically requested.
I read that you didn’t get to meet with Emma D’Arcy at all during production but have you two had a chance to speak and compare notes at all?
I got to become close with Em over press and everything, but press is such a weird, isolating experience because you’re separated the whole day. Then you go and do hair and makeup, then you go do the carpet, and then some people hang out. You’re still kind of all separated. But I definitely got to know Emma a lot better during that time.
How did your relationship with Emily [Carey] evolve over the course of filming?
Me and Emily spoke before we started shooting; we got cast, and both asked if we could have a phone call and a Zoom ‘cause I was obviously in Australia [at the time]. It’s interesting because both of our experiences within the show were reflected within our personal lives. We were both under-experienced young women in this world of men, and so much is at stake.
We bonded over that because it’s such a unique and niche experience, and there’s no one who can really relate to what me and Em are going through right now and in the process of filming. That’s very similar to Rhaenyra and Alicent; there’s a parallel there that I think translates on screen.
Have you had a chance to see the show yet?
Not the whole show, but I have seen through five.
Episode four feels like a big turning point in your arc, as the first few episodes are really about Rhaenyra learning the ropes of what it is to be a royal in this world. What do you think she really learns about that experience?
I think she learns that, ultimately, this is a man’s world. She has to either submit or play them at their own game and beat them. At the end of four, we see understand how to play that game—because three and two, she’s rebelling. She’s trying to prove [that] through actions, but ultimately her voice is what is heard to her father. She gets through to him because she can articulate what she couldn’t say in those prior episodes of “Look what I can do. Look how much smarter I am than you think I am. I’m really trying to help.” She learns how to vocalize that.
That scene feels like the culmination of your arc in a lot of ways. What was it like for you to shoot it?
It’s incredibly exciting when you have such a vivid arc, especially as a young person [and] as someone quite new to the industry. It’s exciting and terrifying because you care so much that you don’t want to overthink and spoil it. I was given such a blessing being able to work across from Paddy [Considien] with those scenes. We really worked together. It felt like a play—the end of four—having that negotiation. It was very rhythmic and felt like a bit of a dance. I had a lot of fun shooting that scene.
The other big part of four is your Prince and the Pauper moment on the streets of King’s Landing. Did something as slight as a costume change cause you to shift how you approached the physicality of those scenes?
Yeah, because ultimately, it’s symbolic of freedom. She’s free physically within her clothes and she’s free to move around the world in a way that she almost wishes she could. The conservative construction of the things that she has to wear in King’s Landing reflect the way that she moves and the way she thinks. It was really fun being able to open up that box; we see how more comfortable in her own skin [she is].
Weddings in the world of Game of Thrones now have a big legacy within pop culture. What was your reaction to learning you’d get to have one in House of the Dragon?
It was incredibly exciting. When you’re given anything that’s a bit of a challenge, you have to get excited about it, otherwise, the fear overtakes you, and you realize you spoiled something that actually wasn’t that scary to begin with. We worked with Clarie Kilner, who is a phenomenal director, and she brought so much duty and joy to the episodes that she directs. As actors, she was so willing to listen and to play. It was just a lot of fun.
Image via HBO
Can you give me an example of an opportunity that she gave you to kind of play around with those things?
Clare would just listen. Because of the world that we were in, a lot of times we would be faced with people saying, “No, they wouldn’t move that way. They wouldn’t do that.” They would set blocking prior to the scene—would set the cameras first and then the actors—which is quite restricting. It makes your job a lot harder. Clare was willing to allow us to guide them; she invited the cameras into our world as opposed to the other way around.
I actually want to go back to episode four for a second. I watched some videos of you and Matt, and the two of you seem to get along really well. What was the experience of shooting those particular sequences with him? Did you take some time to walk through or rehearse those more emotional beats beforehand? The journey that they go on in that episode is pretty expansive.
It was a very long, extensive rehearsal process. We worked with intimacy coordinators that would ultimately help us choreograph those more delicate scenes. Both of us were aware that he’s an older guy and I’m a younger woman. It was very comfortable in an interesting way. Clare—who also directed episode five—did four. I’m so grateful that she did those episodes. We all felt so safe around her and her vision. We knew that she’d be delicate with it and calm and kind and allow us to take our time and listen.
For a certain sequence in four where me and Matt go into a certain house, she didn’t show us [inside] until we started rolling for the first time. All of that stuff is the first time on camera that we did it. We didn’t rehearse anything prior to that. That was really, really nice because it allowed this kind of playfulness to translate on screen.
I know it’s probably too early to know at this point—and even if you knew, you probably wouldn’t be able to say—but have you found out whether or not you’re going to have an opportunity to come back in the future?
[Laughs.] I have no idea what the future holds. I don’t even know what I’m doing next week, so I don’t know.
How do you view your House of the Dragon experience in its totality, then? I know it may be hard to wrap your arms around something this big, but I’m curious about your perspective on it.
It was completely life-changing in every aspect. I feel like I changed as an actor and as a person. I changed physically. I moved across the world, and now I live in London. It’s opened up a potential career for myself. It was completely overwhelming, incredibly challenging, and indefinitely rewarding in every aspect. But it was a battle.
It kind of mirrors Rhaenyra’s story in that way.
Absolutely. It’s so funny. It’s like, “Oh shit. That’s actually me.”
It is interesting for you when the lines between character and reality blur in that way? Or is it just an extension of what the job is?
I don’t think I’ve done enough to know what it’s like not to have that. I think that you can be the best actor in the world and people are still only gonna see you in a certain way. That’s ultimately who you’re performing to. I have played people with a similar kind of moral understanding because of that. I think you have to use your life within your work—but not in a way of like, “I’m gonna think about this exact experience that happened to me when I’m doing this scene.”
You can contextualize that feeling. I believe that most people have felt the same feelings, but the context [of] all those feelings have been completely different because of the circumstance that [we] were brought up in [and] the way that world has presented itself to us—socioeconomic factors, gender, sex, race—all of those different things. I think you have to identify yourself within those people and the way they feel.
Is there a specific kind of role that you’re looking for in the future?
I just wanna do something completely different, you know? I want to do a play. I want to do a film. I want to do an independent film. I don’t know. I just want to make good work ultimately, and hopefully, I’ll find that soon. Or it’ll find me.
I saw you mention in another interview that you channeled [Australian rock band] Amyl and the Sniffers for your portrayal. I checked out a few of their songs but was there one specific track that best embodies Rhaenyra that people should listen to?
I was listening to them today! Ooh. “Don’t Fence Me In.” Rhys [Ifans] and Paddy actually told me to listen to them. They were like, “They’re an oldie band, you should listen to them.”
Really?
They’re both big into—well, Paddy’s got a band, like a punk band. They’re both very big into that kind of music. But they were like, “You need to check out this band, Amyl and the Sniffers.” I did, and I was like, “Oh my God, they’re fucking sick.”