Daenerys Targaryen was the famous “mother of dragons” in “Game of Thrones. Before, now her ancestor, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, was set to become a mother.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, in the first five episodes of the “Game of Thrones” spinoff series “HOD,” told The Post that she hadn’t seen “Game of Thrones” before landing the role.
“But of course, I knew about it,” she said. “I understood that it was very big and very popular. [After getting cast], I watched it to prepare. I binged the whole 8 seasons in 2 weeks. It was intense, and I quickly became a fan and understood why everyone loved it.”
“House of the Dragon” is set around 200 years before the events of “GoT,” and follows Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow’s ancestors, the silver-haired dragon-riding Targaryen family. As Sunday’s series premiere introduced, King Viserys I sits on the Iron Throne and has just named his daughter Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Milly Alcock is an Australian who is now based in London.
“I was in shock and disbelief. It took me until I was actually doing pre-production to fully process it, and allow myself to get excited about it, and stop getting the feeling that I was going to be fired,” she said. “The throne room was just so cool. Every time you stepped on set, the novelty did not wear off.”
Although she enjoyed Emilia Clarke’s performance as Dragon’s mother, she didn’t draw inspiration from it to play Rhaenyra Targaryen, Alcock said. “Obviously, there’s similarities in their fundamental morals as people, but ultimately they move throughout the world very differently.”
Instead, Milly Alcock drew inspiration from two other sources.
“Cate Blanchett in ‘The Golden Age,’ and Audrey Hepburn in ‘Roman Holiday.’ If you could combine those 2 women together, I think that is Rhaenyra. She’s witty, and cheeky, but she has to perform constantly, and live up to that regal role. But, you can see under the surface, she’s quite uncomfortable in her skin.”
