WARNING: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon
The fourth episode of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon completely shocked the fans with two controversial sex scenes, Rhaenyra's (Milly Alcock) incestuous make-out with his uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) and Alicent's (Emily Carey) very uncomfortable sex scene with King Viserys (Paddy Considine).
Now, in a recent interview with Newsweek, Alicent actress Emily Carey admitted that she was scared doing the sex scene with Considine, the 47-year-old actor who plays Viserys Targaryen.
"We have an intimacy coordinator who was amazing. Again, still being 17, the first scene that I read from the show was my sex scene and my intimacy scenes, that includes the scene where I'm bathing the king-anything that felt intimate was considered an intimacy scene, which I thought was great. But, it scared me because at that point I still hadn't met Paddy, I didn't know how much of a joy he was and how easy he was going to make [the scene], and all I saw was, you know, a 47-year-old man and me, I was a bit concerned."
Carey furtherly discussed how the intimacy coordinator held her hand throughout the filming process and how it made her comfortable.
"And having that outlet of the intimacy coordinator, to be able to talk everything through and not be shunned, or not feel awkward, or not feel like 'Oh, this isn't your job. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable but can I ask you...' it was never any of that, it was just that open dialogue ... In the rehearsal room she was a massive help, and on set she was a massive help. Yeah, it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be."
The actress revealed that she hasn't yet seen Game of Thrones before but started watching the show during the pre-production to have an insight into her role. Sadly, the violence against women and the violent sex scenes in the critically-acclaimed HBO series startled her more.
"I think I was still 17 when I started this job, I was 18 by the time we started shooting but there was a few months of me in this role as a 17-year-old. I've never seen Game of Thrones before, and so in the pre-production period I sat down to try and watch [it] and of course the first season, even just the first episode of Thrones, there's a lot of violence upon women. There's a lot of violent sex and it made me nervous. I was like, 'Oh God, what am I gonna have to do in this show?'"
There's no denying that both Carey and Alcock are doing a great job in portraying Alicent and Rhaenyra, considering how challenging it is to do not just the sex scenes but also diving into the complex emotional aspects of their characters.
It's no secret that both of them wouldn't portray Rhaenyra and Alicent for very long, and at some point in the series, Emma D'Arcy and Oliva Cooke will take over to play the grown-up version of the characters, with Carey and Alcock leaving a gold standard.
House of the Dragon is available to stream on HBO Max.
Also read: House of the Dragon: Viserys Actor Reveals the King's Mysterious Disease
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