‘House of the Dragon’: Why Milly Alcock Said ‘F***’ When She Learned She Was Auditioning for ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel
House of the Dragon has given Milly Alcock a striking role as Rhaenyra Targaryan. The daughter of King Viserys (Paddy Considine), Rhaenyra is a key player in this game of thrones. It’s going to be a long time before the Targaryan family catches up to Daeneris, 172 years to be exact. But Alcock panicked when she learned she was trying out to play a Targaryan, in an expletive filled exclamation.
Alcock was a guest on the House of the Dragon podcast on Sept. 4 to discuss her role of Rhaenyra. She told the story of auditioning for a secret HBO show when it dawned on her that it was a Game of Thrones prequel. New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO Max.
Milly Alcock didn’t know her audition was for ‘House of the Dragon’
In the world of Game of Thrones, HBO had to keep their prequel secret. Once they cast House of the Dragon, they could share what it was, but they couldn’t let all the actors who didn’t get roles know about it.
“We didn’t really,” Alcock said on the House of the Dragon podcast. “I mean, we signed a bunch of NDAs. It said HBO prequel show, like it was really f***ing vague. And it basically had the outline for Rhaenyra but it didn’t specify who she was or what her relationship is like in the world. It was just like fantasy, she’s a princess, she’s a punk. They loved using the term punk princess which me and Emma [D’Arcy] were like, ‘What does that mean?’”
The fake audition lines gave away the ‘Game of Thrones’
Alcock didn’t even catch on when she read the fake dialogue for her audition. HBO wasn’t going to let potential actors read real pages from the House of the Dragon script, so they used old ones from Game of Thrones. They changed the names of the characters, so it was Alcock’s friend who caught on.
“But I didn’t really know it was what it was until I was auditioning with my friend,” Alcock said. “He was like, ‘Oh sh**, this is a scene from Game of Thrones.’ I was like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘This is a scene from Game of Thrones, duh, you idiot.’ I was like, ‘Sorry, dude.’ It was the Arya Stark needle scene way back when.”
‘House of the Dragon’ got a lot more intimidating after that
Once Alcock realized her latest audition was in the world of Game of Thrones, she got intimidated. She never believed she would end up on House of the Dragon.
“Honestly, I was like, ‘F***, well, I’m not going to get it,’” Alcock said. “I was angry. I was like, ‘Dammit, if it was something just a bit less big.’ It was genuine defeat. I was defeated.”
Fortunately, Alcock was wrong. She came up with the punk princess House of the Dragon was looking for and portrayed Rhaenyra’s rebellion within the Targaryen kingdom. By episode 6, D’Arcy will take over as older Rhaenyra.
