House of the Dragon's Olivia Cooke on Alicent’s Tragic Ultimatum in the Season Finale

No, I think there’s a real reckoning in episodes four, five and six where she’s coming to terms with, ‘Oh my god, I have been so wrong, and I wrongly put my son on the throne because I misinterpreted my ailing husband.’ I think by the time Alicent gets to Rhaenyra, she knows that she’s made a massive, massive mistake.

I think it’s still really hard for Alicent to admit, even though she knows it, that she has caused all of this. I think that’s what’s propelling her to go to Driftmark. It’s like a confessional, in a way. The biggest confessional that Alicent can put herself through.

How did you and Emma want to play Rhaenyra and Alicent’s meeting?

It sort of just evolved. We shot it over three days, I think. It was sort of just trying to find the music within the scene—it was a big ten-pager. And just trying to find the moments of stillness, but also this yearning for connection, and then how it twists on its head with the ultimatum.

I was just imploring them to, if they feel that there’s something missing, please just direct me, because they’re the one that is reacting off what I’m doing. So I just wanted them to have an extra eye on the scene, and if there’s a beat that I’m not picking up, to grab it. They said the same back, even though I couldn’t ever give Emma notes, because they’re so amazing.

And also like, the pressure of knowing that this was the finale, and wanting it to feel as full-bodied and satisfying as possible, for the meeting of these two women who have been adrift from each other all season. It felt like it needed to culminate to something, and then there also just needed to be this yearning for one another—within all of that, yearning for the relationship we once had. After all this has happened, children have been lost, but still, the grief of the loss of their friendship and the loss of each other needed to be really palpable.

When Alicent asks for her and Helaena’s freedom, Rhaenyra offers an ultimatum calling back to Lucerys’ death at the end of season one: “A son for a son.” Alicent takes a moment, and then she nods. Is there any uncertainty that she has made up her mind, or should that be taken as her saying, ‘Yes, I accept that this is what has to happen’?

I’ve gotta be honest, I’ve not caught up with the episode, so I don’t know how it’s been edited. [Laughs.] But when I played it, it was this deep, deep struggle to come to terms with that ultimatum, and a fight in her head where she doesn’t want to accept these terms at all, and she wants to run, and she wants to spit in Rhaenyra’s face.

But ultimately, the grapple of knowing that this is what must happen … For me, I was almost in my head trying to cauterize that love for Aegon in that moment, and trying just to accept that this is what has to happen. The nod is of acquiescence, I think. That’s how I played it.

Rhaenyra says that the history books will describe Alicent as “the cold queen, grasping for power and then defeated.” Do you think that’s a fair description of her?

No, but I think she finds that sort of morbidly funny. There’s gallow’s humour in that for Alicent, she’s just like, Fuckin’ hell, after everything, that’s the least of my worries… I do not care anymore! I just wanna live out the rest of my days in peace. It’s been enough life for one person.