Olivia Cooke says seeing Alicent as a villain is “incredibly shortsighted”

Every episode of Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon ramps up the tension and intensity, with the Targaryen family steadily straining apart. The Greens are gearing up to take control of King’s Landing, while Rhaenyra is holed up at Dragonstone currently drowned in grief after the deaths of Lucerys, Visenya, and her father, King Viserys. Amidst the ensuing drama, Alicent’s eldest son Aegon II is stuck like a square peg in a round hole, and forced to sit on the Iron Throne. Alicent herself is about to receive the biggest shock of her life in Season 2, and a lot of fans are rooting for the Blacks.

On the other hand, actress Olivia Cooke who plays Alicent, thinks that painting her character as an outright villain is quite wrong. She told Backstage, “With House of the Dragon, I think people have really set [Alicent] up to be the villain. I just don’t think she is at all. Number one, I think it’d be incredibly shortsighted to play any character like a villain. But there’s so much empathy that I have for her. She’s incredibly antagonistic at times, but I just don’t see her as that black-and-white villain that I think a lot of people see her as.”

Do you agree with Olivia’s assessment? Talk to us in the comments below!

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