The first time Olivia Cooke cried on camera, in the 2014 British horror flick “The Quiet Ones,” she was admittedly thrilled. “I was crying on cue, and I just thought, ‘Yep, f— BAFTA,’” she says, laughing at how far her acting career has progressed in 10 years. These days, Cooke spends a lot of her time on set crying — and sobbing and screaming — on command.
It comes with the territory of playing Alicent Hightower on HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” returning for a second season on Sunday. And this year, as Cooke puts it, everything is “dire.” “It feels more expansive and things are ramping up,” Cooke says, speaking from the kitchen table in her home in London.
“It’s a fantasy, but this is also what’s happening to the characters, and the stakes are high.” Cooke, 30, has invited me over for breakfast (avocado toast and smoked salmon served with a croissant on the side) to discuss becoming Alicent in the “Game of Thrones” prequel, although the conversation veers rapidly from the series to her favorite plays on the West End to the neighborhood cats that regularly appear in her backyard. “There’s like a cat coven,” she says.
“They all congregate in here, and they just watch me. I’m the high priestess of all the cats.” It’s unsurprising that the local pets flock to Cooke, who holds herself with a regal air even when she’s brewing coffee and taking bites of toast in between speaking.
It’s a trait she showcases onscreen in “.
