Olivia Cooke is doing a great job so far as the “aged up” Alicent Hightower on House of the Dragon. I find the pacing and all the cast changes a little jarring and unnecessary, but there’s no denying that she’s really bringing it and expanding on the great work already done by Emily Carey. I recall people being pretty excited about Olivia’s casting when it was announced because people were already fans of her previous projects, like Bates Motel. (I also really liked Thoroughbreds). Apparently, Olivia had a really hard time back when was filming Bates. Due to the filming schedule, she spent a lot of time alone and became very depressed.
House of the Dragon actress Olivia Cooke is opening up about her mental health, sharing that she experienced a “full mental breakdown” at age 22.
Now 28, the British actress tells the Observer that she struggled with loneliness while filming the A&E series Bates Motel in Canada.
“I’m so grateful for that job, but I had a really tough time on it,” says Cooke, who played Emma Decody on the Hitchcock-inspired drama, which ran from 2013 to 2017. “The way the schedule worked, we all had different storylines, so a lot of my time was spent in this apartment in Vancouver, working once every two weeks.”
By 2016, that sense of isolation had grown into full-fledged depression, she tells the U.K. publication.
“It was a big old lovely cocktail: being homesick and not knowing it, having not stopped since I was 18, being on my own for large swathes of time,” she says of her “full mental breakdown.” “It was bad, bad. Awful, actually.”
But the Sound of Metal star didn’t step back from acting to focus on her mental well-being.
“Oh, no, I was working all the way through,” says Cooke, who at the time was shooting both Ready Player One and Thoroughbreds. “I was very good at hiding it. If anything, I was like, let me escape myself.”
It wasn’t until 2019 that she noticed a more significant reprieve from “the incessant, persistent, anxious thoughts” that plagued her. Now starring as Alicent Hightower on HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, Cooke says she’s found herself in a “sweet spot” these days — something she credits to her new TV gig, a move back to London after a breakup with Girls actor Christopher Abbott and the chance to have something of a break amid the pandemic. And while she’s still months shy of turning 29, she’s at eager to embrace what’s ahead.
“You wouldn’t pay to go back to 22,” she says. “Well, I wouldn’t.”
Olivia was isolated, in an apartment, working once every two weeks… She did 2020 covid lockdown before the rest of us did. So yes, I (and I think most of us) can completely understand how that lonely situation contributed to a depression and mental breakdown. Spending all that time alone was pretty terrible and I definitely felt similarly after just one year of it. And Olivia filmed that show for four years. It seems like she’s doing a lot better now with her new work and move and other changes. A change of scenery can really help feelings like that. And yes, I agree with her that I wouldn’t pay to go back to 22. But going back to 29 might be nice! Also, Olivia is a bit younger than I thought considering the cast change. She’s 10 years older than Emily Carey, which works with the time jump, but I believe she’s supposed to play the character for the rest of the series, so hopefully they’ll just be doing a make-up age-up instead of swapping actors again. The original GoT dragged at points, but it was nice that they mostly stuck to the same actors instead of having like three actors play the same role within three episodes.
Apparently she’s a Savage x Fenty ambassador.
Photos credit: Avalon.red and via Instagram
She brought it in the last episode, rocketing to tv’s most controversial character ever. I’m living for the HoTD threads right now.
Is Bates Motel worth watching? I could use new series.
There’s a lot about Bates Motel that’s excellent. Some story lines are…meh, but I’d definitely recommend it!
As far as HOTD is concerned, I too find the time jumps and cast changes a little annoying. Once you settle on one you’re supposed to understand what happened and who is who the next episode. They could have slowed the pace down and done more intrigue the first season. But I guess if entire houses and regions aren’t fighting, they have to find conflict and villains somewhere in a big way. So they accelerate the plot to get to the fighting the audience knows is coming and is anticipating.
I’m watching HoTD as a light distraction, the memes and threads are the best part. GoT was so intricately written, so many characters and plot lines occurring at once. It took me years to figure out how to properly watch it. Season 8 aside, nothing was ever rushed. Entire seasons were spent documenting the travel between north and south. IDK why HoTD was chosen as the prequel to produce, focusing on a single plot line that needs frequent time jumps to maintain the drama, but it’s what we got. And it’s fun.
ETA: your post reminds me of Lisa Simpson’s explanation of the plot scrolls in Star Wars so they can get to the action. 🤣
After the pacing issues with GOT, I actually feel good about HOTD! I feel like these time jumps make sense for the story to progress. There’s so much backstory with the Dance of Dragons, they have to pare down to make a cohesive show. I’m pleased so far.
Yes, Bates Motel is worth watching. Lots of great performances from Freddie Highmore, Vera Farmiga, and Olivia Cooke. It’s basically a prequel to Psycho. Highmore plays Norman Bates and Farmiga plays his mother. It tells the story of how they came to live and own the Bates Motel. Cooke plays a local girl with CF who befriends Norman.
I loved Bates Motel. Vera Farmiga was robbed of every award as she was outstanding.
She was an excellent Becky Sharpe in the BBC Vanity Fair adaptation.
Oh, I’d forgotten about that. She was so good.
Fortunately after the next episode, we should be done with time jumps. The setup spanned about 25 years, but the meat of the story takes place over the course of 2-3 years.
That being said, it was confusing that while the young characters aged, only Viserys among the older characters visibly aged. Even Otto, who is supposed to be older, looks the same.
I notice they didn’t age the hot guys. I kind of appreciate that.
Olivia is fabulous in this role. I am just amazed, because I found that character annoying before, even though the acting was good.
(SPOILERS for episodes already aired) The time jumps wouldn’t be nearly as distracting if they just TOLD the audience it was happening.
In one of the earliest episodes, where Alicent was still being played by the younger actresss, it went from “The King is going to marry Alicent” to “they are married, with one baby, and she is currently pregnant”. Couldn’t they have started that episode with a graphic that said “Two years later” or whatever? Instead I spent the first few minutes missing dialogue trying to adjust my brain. Same thing when they swapped out both actresses, why not “Ten years later”? I know it wasn’t THAT confusing, but it took me out of the show for the first 5 minutes trying to figure where everyone stood.
I’m actually really glad that they’re not infantilizing the viewers by having the character explaining every little thing. One example is with *SPOILER ALERT* Otto very lowkey confirming that he has basically been grooming them all for civil war, simply by expressing his happiness that they now have Vhagar on their side (as opposed to being concerned about his grandson being severely injured and daughter going off her hinges). He wasn’t explicitly stating his underlying intentions, but you can glean what his goals ultimately are from that remark. That’s what makes this show pretty great, in my opinion.
Actually all the cast on HOTD is excellent, I’m pleasantly surprised by the show. Unlike GOT, I enjoy the faster pacing here, I found GOT boring because it was so slow and nothing was happening most of the time (along with having way too many characters, half of which were totally unnecessary). So this was a nice change, I look forward to it every week now.