Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra) recalled their first day on the set of House of the Dragon

After making her acting debut in the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Emma D’Arcy rose to stardom with viewers, critics, and the awards circuit. In the midst of the season, the actor entered the show under intense pressure to succeed Milly Alcock as Rhaenyra, the heir to the Iron Throne. They recently looked back at their first day on set.

Emma D’Arcy’s first day on set

Talking to Awards Watch, D’Arcy recalled, “I mean, an unromantic answer starts with the fact that we obviously shot out of order, and so we actually started shooting with episode seven, which for me felt like a real gift because it allowed me and Liv [Cooke] a little bit of time on set together. Before the show became itself and ran one to 10… It was funny.”

Emma D’Arcy and Milly Alcock filmed simultaneously

D’Arcy talked about how they and Milly filmed Rhaenyra together, “It didn’t feel like we were taking on a baton so much as operating with a shadow self simultaneously, because normally me and Milly [Alcock] were working at the same time throughout the series, but we [would] never see each other or we’d pass in a car park.”

“Yeah, I don’t know. It was nice. It was like living across time and you catch the back of a blonde wig and go, “that person’s very familiar.” I think in a show that speaks so much to personal history and to family and to the familial contexts that forge a person, it felt appropriate to encounter your younger self in a car park at 5:00 in the morning.”

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