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Take me into the mindset of Alicent. Princess Rhaenyra is her closest pal and confidant, and now she is entering into the function of her stepmother. And whereas she could not have a ton of dialogue, it’s clear from her mannerisms and the best way she carries herself that there’s a lot of nervous vitality occurring.
It’s fascinating that you simply say you possibly can see a lot on her face and the way she holds herself and the choosing. It’s due to a lot that she desires to say however can’t, or feels she will’t, and it leaks out in little methods. It leaks out in a glint within the eye or a facial features or the choosing. She simply can not bodily include all of it—it has to burst out the seams indirectly form or kind. I work as a really immersive actor, so after I’m taking part in a personality, my thought course of disappears and I tackle the character’s prepare of thought, if that is smart. That’s how I work; I black out, and it feels very very like a swap between the 2 fairly than a mix as some actors work. And so after I was in Alicent’s mindset, I discovered it very troublesome to arrange her ideas as a result of there was simply a lot occurring always. I made a decision to journal. It’s one thing that I do on most jobs to assist perceive the depth of the character’s mind, and I believe it takes it from being a personality on a web page to a three-dimensional human being. As a result of nobody ever says consistently what they’re pondering. There’s at all times a stream of consciousness, and I take pleasure in having that on paper to take a look at. It was particularly useful on this occasion as a result of with such an extended shoot, we’d do one thing in rehearsals or we’d shoot a scene in June and are available again to the scene following that or earlier than that in December, and it might have been very arduous to leap round. So I’d simply learn the journal [entry] of the day we rehearsed it or the day we shot the earlier scene, and it might take me straight again into firsthand the place my mind wanted to be in that mindset. It was one thing that Ryan, particularly greater than anybody else, was extremely intrigued by and he discovered it fascinating. He would sit and skim it.
I bear in mind in our story conferences on the very starting, I had one-on-one character conferences with Miguel [Sapochnik] and Ryan and had by no means had that type of inventive freedom and had by no means been in a position to delve in that deep earlier than. I got here in with my folders and had each script printed out and highlighted and annotated with little tabs protruding. They had been like, “Whoa! That is nice. What’s going on?” And I used to be like, “That is how I work. That is what I do.” They had been like, “Cool, let’s work with that then.” Miguel is superb. He makes you are feeling like you’re the solely particular person he’s working with and the one particular person within the room. He’s very hands-on, and I cherished that. The assist we had and the rehearsal interval felt like we had been doing play rehearsals, which I began in theater, so, for me, it was a really snug atmosphere.
Are you able to inform me about working with Milly Alcock and constructing that on-screen dynamic?
I believe we had been fairly fortunate that we didn’t hate one another. We simply get alongside rather well off-screen, and in order that chemistry got here very organically. Milly booked her function fairly some time earlier than I used to be forged, fairly some time earlier than I even auditioned, I believe. And she or he had been asking for ages, “Who’s taking part in Alicent?” And the second I came upon I booked it, I requested, “Who’s taking part in the opposite one? Who’s taking part in the opposite younger lady?” I wished to know who Rhaenyra is. So we each, with out figuring out, requested our representatives to ask manufacturing who the opposite one was. We obtained one another’s emails, which is admittedly bizarre and formal, so I Instagram-stalked her and DMd her and was like, “Hello! That is actually bizarre. Can we discuss as a result of I don’t learn about you, however I’m petrified,” and he or she was like “Me too.” We FaceTimed and had been each like, okay, that is reassuring that we’re each as scared as each other. [We were on completely] reverse ends of the world, however we had been each going into this loopy whirlwind, life-changing expertise collectively. And so we clung to one another and haven’t but let go.
We labored quite a bit on the connection with, after all, Miguel, but in addition with Clare Kilner who [directed episodes] 4 and 5 as a result of that’s actually the place you see the distinction within the friendship from the place it’s been established into what we see it turn out to be and clearly the spark of what it’s then going to turn out to be when Olivia [Cooke] and Emma [D’Arcy] take over. However there’s simply this closeness between them. I at all times say, at 14, particularly as a lady, you assume your finest pal goes to be your finest pal without end. There isn’t a different choice. That’s your particular person. And it’s virtually like having a associate in that sense—it toes the road between platonic and romantic. At 14, you don’t know what these phrases imply, not to mention what the sentiments imply. It’s simply this tactile closeness. I imply, women at 14 are allowed to vary in entrance of one another, they aren’t allowed to vary in entrance of the boys, they usually go to the lavatory collectively, and people issues. There’s simply this bond. Exploring that was one of the enjoyable issues to do on this job, and Milly made it really easy.
Olivia Cooke performs the older model of Alicent. Did you two have an opportunity to attach earlier than filming to speak by means of the character?
It was blind, however we simply needed to belief the inventive workforce. And as a lot as we trusted them, they put an enormous quantity of belief in us. We did go for lunch midway by means of the shoot, however solely as a result of Liv is the loveliest human ever and messaged me to verify I used to be okay. We simply went for a catch-up, and we didn’t truly discuss concerning the character in any respect. Ten years is a extremely very long time, you already know. It’s a very long time in anybody’s life, however particularly in Westeros the place time strikes so quickly and the individuals round you alter so shortly and the circumstances change so shortly. We see them develop from virtually kids to totally fledged girls. There’s loads of rising as much as do in these 10 years as effectively. So it was like we had been taking part in totally different individuals. It’s, after all, the identical character, however I don’t assume anybody of their 20s appears again at who they had been at 14 and thinks they’re the identical particular person. What was it that Emma mentioned? At Comedian-Con, they mentioned [that] once they had been watching Milly’s and my episodes, it felt like they had been watching dwelling video, like [a] Targaryen dwelling video, and I believe that’s such a candy factor to say, and it is smart. We haven’t seen Olivia and Emma’s episodes but. I’m actually intrigued to see the way it’s going to be watching me, like my character, my Alicent, on display in years to come back. It’s a wierd Again to the Future type of factor.