‘House of the Dragon’: Fabien Frankel, Milly Alcock Wanted Rhaenyra, Criston Cole Sex Scene to Be Awkward
House of the Dragon had two sex scenes of vastly different tones in its fourth episode. One between Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) rightfully caused a stir, even among characters on the show. But, the one between Rhaenyra and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) earned the term love scene.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the House of the Dragon episode “King of the Narrow Sea.”]
Frankel was a guest on the House of the Dragon podcast on Sept. 11. Discussing the sex scene between Criston and Rhaenyra, Frankel described how he discussed its awkwardness with Alcock. New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO Max.
This ‘House of the Dragon’ sex scene wasn’t like ‘Game of Thrones’
Game of Thrones took some criticism for showing more female frontal nudity than male and the violence that accompanied many of its sex scenes. Frankel said he and Alcock wanted Rhaenyra and Criston to be more real than other fantasy characters.
“We had an amazing intimacy coordinator, Miriam [Lucia], who helped us with that,” Frankel said on the House of the Dragon podcast. “Also I think Milly and I wanted so much to not just make another sex scene that feels completely gratuitous and is like sort of glamorizing the kind of incredibly muscular tan bodies, that whole thing, sweat glistening off their skin kind of thing. The reality of sex is that, especially early on, it’s pretty awkward.”
‘House of the Dragon’ costumes made sex scenes even more awkward
Criston is still in his full suit of armor when he and Rhaenyra make love. House of the Dragon only portrayed a fraction of the reality of disrobing from that suit of armor.
“Milly and I were like, ‘Imagine how awkward it would’ve been having to get that armor off,’” Frankel said. “Even just taking our shoes off every day takes us like 20 minutes each. So I was like God, just think about the actual time it would’ve taken these kids to get their clothes off in the scene. That alone was like a major thing. In the sort of Hollywoodified version of it, the clothes come off in two seconds but the reality of that armor is like it ain’t coming off in two seconds. There’s three people helping me get out of that armor day to day.”
Alcock’s House of the Dragon costume was no picnic either.
“I’ll put it this way, if I need to go to the loo, that’s like can we clear the set for 20 minutes,” Frankel said. “Fabian needs to go to the loo, just so I can get out of the armor. Milly had the same thing. Between Milly having to air dry her costume because it’s so hot and sweaty in all those rooms, and me having to get out of this armor that’s like 73 straps, it looked really cool but there are like 73 straps. So it was like yeah, it’s long.”
Another drama inspired the Rhaenyra/Criston Cole sex scene
Frankel acknowledged the reputation of Game of Thrones’s sex scenes. He said director Clare Kilner referenced a recent drama for the type of sex scene Rhaenyra and Criston Cole should have.
“We just wanted to find all the complications of that and not shy away from them,” Frankel said. “Claire, our director, was amazing. Normal People had just come out and they had done sex scenes so brilliantly in that show. We were going, ‘God, wouldn’t it be cool if there was an element of it feeling genuinely how it is in a world that is so well known for not so much humanity in the sex scenes particularly.’ I think Milly feels similarly at least that we really wanted to make it feel like it was a couple of kids trying to figure out how to do this thing.”
