In his review of “House of the Dragon” Season 2, IndieWire’s TV critic Ben Travers says the show “brings the fire early.” Well, in one respect its makers actively tamped down the heat: Star Olivia Cooke laments a cut sex scene in a new interview with Elle.
“It was messy as fuck,” Cooke said of the sex scene, involving her character Alicent Hightower, whose intricate schemes to hold onto power have sometimes aligned with bedroom shenanigans. “It wasn’t beautiful, and that was really fun to do.”
The scene, which she also called “animalistic” and “carnal,” was cut by showrunner Ryan Condal because he felt it didn’t advance what the audience already knew. “I think Ryan said we weren’t learning any more about the characters, which I disagree with slightly, but it’s okay,” Cooke added, in way to indicate there are no hard feelings. “It’s his show.”
Sex has been a crucial arrow in Alicent’s quiver in the past. She became queen at the urging of her father by marrying King Viserys, catapulting her into a position to advance the interests of House Hightower. She also, in one astoundingly, unforgettably creepy scene in Season 1, indulged her advisor Larys Strong’s foot fetish for her.
But “House of the Dragon” generally has not had as many sex scenes as its predecessor series “Game of Thrones,” for which it serves as a prequel, being set 200 years before the original show. That appears to have been a conscious choice on the part of the creative team, as the emphasis on sex on “Game of Thrones” was sometimes called out by viewers, particularly after a horrific rape scene involving Sophie Turner’s character. Nudity also became much less common on that series as it went on, and has been deployed much more sparingly on “House of the Dragon.”
“I thought there’d be way more [nudity], and so I’m relieved that when it has been used for me, it’s showing Alicent being pleasured, which is amazing and doesn’t feel gratuitous,” she told Elle. “It feels like we’re telling a story.”
“House of the Dragon” was the biggest premiere on Max to date.