Before season three ofHouse Of The Dragon premiered over the summer, Olivia Cooke had already anticipated the fresh crop of online opinions, comments, and baseless assumptions, so she took a social media break to protect her sanity. In a new interview withGQ Hype published today, Cooke, who stars as Queen Alicent on the Game Of Thrones spin-off, said that she spent this year focusing on improving her mental health. Part of that goal meant staying clear of the chatter surrounding the series, which, during the most recent season, involved disgusted reactions regarding incest (not an uncommon theme in the GOT universe) and complaints that Alicent had too much screen time.
According to GQ, some Redditors also assumed that Cooke was at the mercy of a director’s toxic whims and was being exploited. “I think some of those interpretations just catch fire, and they become something that bears no resemblance to what was shown on the screen at the time,” Cooke said. “There’s a lot of ugliness to that fandom as well. It’s steeped in misogyny. There’s a lot of racism. I try to let it take up minimal mental real estate.” Cooke also defended director Clare Kilner, saying that she’s proof that “you don’t have to stomp around the set and exert testosterone. You can just handle each department with kindness and care.”
Season three of HOTD featured memorable scenes, like dragon-on-dragon fights and epic battles, but it also sparked social media outcry. The premiere included an incestuous kiss between Alicent and her son, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), and piled onto his Oedipus complex with a scene in episode seven in which Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) made him hallucinate an intimate interaction with Alicent.
Unfortunately, the Game Of Thrones universe has been known to have a particularly toxic fanbase, to the point that book series author George R. R. Martin and multiple stars have publicly addressed it. Lena Headey toldThe Telegraph she was “really shocked by the anger” of fans after they found out she used a body double for her character Cersei Lannister’s famous naked walk of shame in season five. Steve Toussaint, who plays Corlys Velaryon on HOTD, told Radio Times (viaThe Guardian) that he was subjected to “racist abuse” after being cast on the show. And let’s not forget that the controversial GOTseries finale was so hated that a Change.org petition calling for a season eight remake by more “competent writers” amassed over one million signatures (which stars Kit Harington and Sophie Turner slammed as disrespectful). Luckily for Cooke, she won’t have to endure the fandom’s toxicity for much longer. In August, showrunner Ryan Condal confirmed thatHOTDwould end with its upcoming fourth season.
