House of the Dragon Director Analyzes Alicent’s Big Moment of Silent Horror

The Dragon HouseThe show’s most memorable moments are often flashy, (literally) fiery, and peppered with gruesome violence. There were plenty of those in last week’s episode, but episode five, “Regent,” which aired last night, gave us one of the most powerful reactions we’ve ever seen on the show, and also one of the quietest. In a new interview, “Regent” director Clare Kilner explained how it all came together.

We’ve already seen admirable choices involving surprising restraint. The Dragon House. Another notable example from Season 2 came in the premiere, when Heleana witnessed the brutal beheading of her young son, then rushed into the Red Keep to deliver the news with a seeming lack of emotion. But it’s different from how we saw Alicent react in “Regent” when the Small Council chose her son, Aemond, to rule in place of the gravely injured King Aegon.

It’s a double whammy, because not only are they ruling out the much more experienced Alicent, mainly because she’s a woman, but they’re also appointing someone she knows will be a cruel leader. She also rightly suspects that Aemond is the reason Aegon returned from the battle in such a horrible state.

In this scene, instead of focusing on the newly promoted Aemond, who begins to give orders, Kilner places the camera on Alicent’s face, as the noise in the room around her quiets and her physical reaction (rapid breathing, rapid heartbeat) to what has just happened becomes apparent. In Olivia Cooke’s carefully calibrated expression, we see a woman feeling a mixture of emotions: anger, disrespect and insult, but also panic. She is terrified of what this means for the future.

In an interview with The Wrap, Kilner explained why she chose this take over Cooke’s mesmerizing performance. “For every scene, I do a lot of prep beforehand to break down the scene and look at the characters, but I also go to set with my DP and we talk about how we could shoot it if we just had one long shot,” the director said. “I thought, ‘This would all be on Alicent. I could shoot this whole scene on Alicent.’ And also because Olivia Cooke brings it all together in silence. There’s so much going on behind those eyes.”

Kilner explained that she and her team all knew it was the right choice. “Sometimes you don’t know if the studio or people are going to let you do this. Everyone was on board with it. It became so obvious that it was a huge betrayal,” she said.

New episodes of The Dragon House arrives Sunday on HBO and Max.

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