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House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke has admitted to having “complicated feelings” about playing a grandmother in the programme, despite only being 30 years old. The actor plays Alicent Hightower in the returning HBO series, set nearly 200 years before the events of its predecessor, Game of Thrones . Though the character is written to have started having children at a young age, the actors who play Alicent’s sons King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) are 29 and 27, respectively.

In a new interview with The Times , Cooke noted that she was aware of the lack of a realistic age gap between herself and her on-screen children, as well as her relatively young character being a grandmother. “I have really complicated feelings towards it,” Cooke said. “If they can create dragons, they could have made me look younger – and then older.



Or maybe they should have cast actors in their forties? It’s happened now and I’m grateful for the role, but I’ve just turned 30 and I’m playing a grandma. There is a real reticence to see women age on screen. A real reticence.

” Cooke continued by noting that she finds the role “hysterical” due to the small age gap with her co-stars. “Because Tom is a year younger and I’m, like, ‘Son, come here! Come on to the bosom!’ It is a strange dynamic that I’m very aware of,” she said. “But I also don’t want to slag off the show – it’s just something Emma [d’Arcy, who plays rival Rhaenyra Tar.

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