Olivia Cooke on ‘House of the Dragon’ and Tuning Out Twitter Criticism

Olivia Cooke just had the biggest year of her career, thanks to HBO’s hit #GameOfThrones spinoff, #HouseOfTheDragon. Part of creating her standout performance as Alicent Hightower was accepting not every part of her process would line up exactly with the massive amount of fan expectations surrounding the show. “Whatever layers I try to give the character in order to make a more nuanced performance… ultimately it’s not going to please everyone,” she says. “But that’s just what I have to do in order to give a decent, honest performance. I have to imbue it with just things that justify the characters, actions and emotions. And those might not necessarily be in the original text, or even in the scripts.” In this episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast, Cooke brings us behind the scenes of “House of the Dragon,” explains the layers she added to Alicent, and shares her mindset as she gears up for season 2. -- Backstage has been the #1 resource for actors and talent-seekers for 60 years