Olivia Cooke Reveals The Toll All the Hate on Alicent Took On Her
Maybe one day fandoms will learn to distinguish between actors and their characters.
House of the Dragon 's Olivia Cooke, who portrays Queen Alicent Hightower in the Game of Thrones prequel, has spoken out on suffering from depression due to the amount of hate she received over her character.
Cooke shared her grievances at Power Women Summit where she was joined by The White Lotus' Haley Lu Richardson, Xochitl Gomez from Doctor Strange 2, Aimee Loo Wood from Sex Education, and Tommy Dorfman from I Wish You All The Best. The House of the Dragon actress revealed that she would scroll Twitter and see hateful comments that were "awful" and "hideous".
"People are so mean," Cooke said. "[...] And so I was a bit depressed, and didn't want to leave the house for a little bit."
Alicent is arguably one of the most hated characters in House of the Dragon, with the majority of the fandom viewing her and her team Green as the villains, even though the show does not explicitly take sides.
Cooke's revelation has caused outrage in the fandom, with people rising to her defense and underlining that it is important to distinguish the actor and the character. Even if the latter is despicable, it does not justify the bullying towards the actor.
"I hate this whole thing of people attacking the actors for just portraying fantastic antagonists. Like they are NEEDED, integral in the story. Stop chasing & attacking people for playing a role. She killed it as alicent, like alicent is a straight up hater but she's complex," Twitter user the_ADHD_one said.
Some people were quick to describe how much they hate Alicent, but highlighted that's because Cooke did her job in such a perfect way. The sentiment, however, arrived to a mixed response, with fans wondering why would one feel the need to clarify how much a character is hated before they defend the actress.
Others recalled how Emma D'Arcy received "unnecessary hate" over their nomination for Golden Globe awards, with some people blasting their performance and demanding that other cast members receive a nomination instead of them.
Meanwhile, House of the Dragon is set to return to screens as the filming for season 2 starts in March 2023. The premiere date will be announced by HBO later.