Olivia Cooke describes Alicent and Otto’s relationship as a “lifelong deceit”

Critics have lauded House of the Dragon actress Olivia Cooke for her portrayal of the dowager Queen Alicent Hightower, and viewers are eagerly anticipating what happens to her in the series’ upcoming episodes. Alicent shares an interesting relationship with her father, Otto, to say the least. Cooke recently expressed her thoughts about it.

Alicent realizes her father’s decisions for her were “a lifelong deceit”

In a recent interview with The Wrap, Cooke said, “She’s always known that Otto is trying to position her in the best way possible, but to what gain has always been unclear until later on in the series where it is truly revealed that Alicent has been a pawn in his hand since the day she was birthed.”

“It’s a lifelong deceit. You question every single decision that your father has made on your behalf: Was it for you? Was it for the realm? Or was it just for him to go down in the history books and create this legacy for himself?”

Why Alicent hated Rhaenyra so much?

Cooke explained, “What do you do when you’re living in the same house as someone that you’ve got all this acrimonious tension with, who’s also your ex-best friend but now also your daughter? It’s a really fascinating, deeply troubled relationship that has this invisible string of tension between them at all times.”

“It’s wonderful, casting your mind back to your fledgling childhood friendships and how those little injustices, those rejections and those moments of discovery impact you even as an adult,” she said. “Finding those moments within Alicent and Rhaenyra’s relationship implants a memory that you can draw upon when you have those scenes that are more tempestuous.”

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