I made screencaps of Milly in this week’s episode of “House of the Dragon”. Click on the gallery link below to all caps.

ALL EYES ON YOU

For the past three weeks, Milly Alcock has been winning over the audiences with her nuanced portrayal of young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon – the HBO show which last month made headlines for its record-breaking premiere. For the Australian actress – who prior to getting the part has never seen Game of Thrones, the series that HotD is a prequel to – the biggest surprise was just how straightforward the extravagant show’s arc is. “It’s a story of one family, and how that family has a massive fight which affects the whole kingdom,” says Alcock. “And because they’re in charge, everyone else around them suffers and has an opinion on their actions.” Prior to the show’s big launch, we spoke to Milly about the fascinating nature of Rhaenyra, the euphoria of riding a horse, and wanting to play a valley girl.

House of the Dragon is one of the biggest shows of the year! How did you become a part of this project?

It was a really fast auditioning process. I did a self-tape back in Sydney and the sample scene they gave me was actually from Game of Thrones – I hadn’t seen the show at that point, so I hadn’t actually realized [what I might be auditioning for]. Then, two weeks later, I got a callback, followed by a phone call saying that I got the part two weeks after that. It was just so extremely quick that I didn’t feel like I actually landed the role!

What would you say are the main differences in the storytelling tone between House of the Dragonand Game of Thrones?

I would say that our show is the modern revamp of Game of Thrones – the series has definitely addressed the critiques and didn’t make the same mistakes that the original got scrutinized for, which I think is going to make it more appealing to a wider audience. House of the Dragon explores a broader range of perspectives in terms of themes like sexuality, gender, and race, so it allows everybody to be a part of that world.

Having not seen the original show prior to getting the part, what surprised you the most about this universe?

The fact that despite being very extravagant in its presentation, it’s very simplistic in its themes – it’s a story of one family, and how that family has a massive fight which affects the whole kingdom. And because they’re in charge, everyone else around them suffers and has an opinion on their actions.

In the series, you play Rhaenyra Targaryen – what do you find most fascinating about her as a person?

She is a princess, but she fundamentally doesn’t want to adhere to that role and what she’s expected to do. That’s why she acts out in a lot of ways, and because of her position of privilege, she can get away with a lot more stuff. She comes across as quite arrogant – we meet her when she’s in her early teens, so she’s at that point where she expects the world to owe her something and hasn’t grasped the reality that everybody suffers and that she’s not the only person who’s ever experienced these feelings. She holds a lot of anger in her and we see her work through that anger, but quite publicly, because of her position. But I do really adore her outspokenness and emotional intelligence about people close to her. She’s a lot smarter than she’s made out to be.

What was the wildest skill you got to learn for this role?

I learned how to ride a horse! I’m very grateful that I got to learn that skill – there’s something really fun about horse riding and the freedom that it gives you. Also, I think it helped me tap into Rhaenyra a bit more and tap into her using her dragon – I’m assuming that the feeling of euphoria while riding a horse would be a bit similar to the feeling of riding a dragon, just a thousand times less strong because the dragon would be going so fucking fast! [laughs]

What amazed you the most about the level of production on a series like this?

The craft and attention to detail were insane! For example, with the costumes, everything was handmade and hand-embroidered, so it felt like you were wearing art. Also, just the sheer volume of people that it took to make that job. When you’re working with a 400-person crew every day, it can be quite overwhelming – you can’t help but have the feeling that you’re a part of something that’s larger than you and larger than something you’ll ever be. So there was a bit of pressure within that feeling of ‘all eyes are on you’, but I learned to understand that I had so many people around me whose job was to make sure that I came across the best way that I could in my performance. All of the crew was so incredible – they were so kind and so human, which didn’t feel like it should go together with how big and over-the-top the production was.

Having that incredible experience, what sort of challenges and roles are you hoping to explore now?

I really want to do a play. I think it would be such a great challenge in terms of how you rehearse and the text that you are given, as well as vocally and movement-wise. There’s just something that seems so exciting about that moment of performance living in the space of two hours and being shared exclusively with the audience that’s right in front of you. Also, I would love to do some independent films. I want to play a valley girl…

An A24 valley girl?

Yes! I just want to have fun.

Source: behindtheblinds.be

Everything You Need To Know About ‘House Of The Dragon’ Star Milly Alcock
The Aussie actor enters the dragon’s den.

After a near flawless run, fantasy series Game of Thrones ended with a whimper. Thankfully, the new prequel, House of the Dragon shows serious promise – as does its Aussie star Milly Alcock.

Violence? Check. Sex scenes? Check. A brutal and shocking death in episode one? Check, check, check. House of the Dragon wastes no time reminding viewers why the world couldn’t stop talking about Game of Thrones until its final season three years ago.

The prequel is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and tells the story of House Targaryen (as in Daenerys Targaryen). While whispers of returning cast members have yet to be confirmed, there are plenty of fresh faces, including 22-year-old Alcock.

“I was at a friend’s house when I found out I got the part. I couldn’t tell anyone, so I just silently screamed, hung up the phone and looked my friend in the eye and asked “do you have any wine?,” recalls Alcock, who previously starred alongside Tim Minchnin’s Upright and A Place to Call Home.

Alcock will take the iron throne as a young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. So what do viewers need to know about the woman beneath the crown? “That I’ve been picked up and dropped into the lion’s den and I don’t know what I’m doing,” Alcock says.

If you missed the original series (how?!), you’re in luck. Alcock explains, “it’s a completely new story so it opens up a big audience, because everybody can watch it with fresh eyes. I hadn’t actually watched the original series until we started shooting. I can see why there’s such a large fan base around it, it’s brilliant.”

While the new series does take a new stylistic and thematic direction with its exploration of characters and relationships, long-time fans can expect the same meticulous detail that stays true to the original series.

“The attention to detail is insane,” Alcock says. “Our costume designer Jany [Temime] did an incredible job at including dragon detailing in my costume such as scaling. Jenny was very smart at thinking ‘how am I going to include this family’s sigil and plant that seed of ‘we are House Targaryen’. The clothing that we wear is also very restrictive, which actually helps get you into the character and the restricted within the world that she lives in. Although, I will admit with all the live fire and heavy costumes, it got really hot during filming, and I’m a sweater so I often had to go and stand in front of the fans with my arms up.”

“I can see parallels in the dynamics of the relationships. I recognise the relationship between mother and daughter with my own mother, and between two young women and how that friendship deteriorates. I can definitely relate,” says Alcock. “That said, I’ve never ridden a dragon!”

Despite filming taking place miles from home, the 22-year-old from Sydney was still eager to bring a slice of home to the set. “We went to the seaside in Cornwall [in England] before rehearsal, and I decided I wanted to go for a swim. Everyone said, ‘you don’t have time,’ but I did it anyway. I felt so Australian. It was 15 degrees in the water and I was just in my undies, because I didn’t have any swimmers. It reminded me of home.”

After ruling a kingdom and securing herself a place on the iron throne, you’d forgive the young star for wanting to settle into an early retirement. Instead, Alcock has a few projects she’d like to get under her belt.

“I really want to play a boxer or a musician. I’m jealous of musicians and the power that they have onstage and their ability to captivate an audience with their voice. I’d also love to do a play.”

Source: marieclaire.com.au

Click on the gallery link to see the photos in full size.

Since dropping out of high school to pursue a full-time acting career, Milly Alcock’s trajectory has been nothing short of magical. Within five years, her onscreen CV has grown to include appearances on Janet King, Fighting Season, The Gloaming and more recently a co-starring role as the young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon, the hotly anticipated film adaption of George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, which is also the prequel to the cult classic, Game of Thrones. As much of a bonafide breakout role as this is, Milly truly ascended the echelons of film and television with her co-starring role in the award-winning Foxtel drama, Upright, alongside renowned composer/writer/ comedian Tim Minchin.

In Upright, Alcock portrays the frustrated, swear-word-slinging misfit “Meg,” who is easily misunderstood as she grapples with her complicated pile of emotions. What Meg lacks in eloquence, the character of Princess Rhaenyra compensates for in articulacy and guile. Both women are equally as emotionally intelligent as they are stubborn-willed, yet their dispositions are disappointed by the authoritative male figures around them. The antics with which each navigates her battle-of-the-sexes power play are what makes both shows irresistibly binge-worthy.

On the hottest recorded day in the UK’s history, Milly put her fan on high blast so she could shoot the breeze with Schön! about purposefully losing herself in the grandeur of onset wardrobe and makeup, the need for greater Aussie representation in mainstream film/television, and more.

We’re chatting on a historic day— it’s the hottest recorded day in British history!

I don’t know Fahrenheit, but right now it’s 38 degrees celsius—I came here to escape the heat, not be re-introduced to the heat…But I’m sitting in front of a fan, sorry if it’s noisy.

That’s perfectly fine. You can go get a bowl of cold ice cream if it helps because you are in the heat of the day…What time is it in London?

It’s 12:45 pm.

Wow, you are in the heat of the day, on the hottest recorded day.

But here we are. We made it.

And to the same hot party. [Laughter]. It’s especially exciting to chat with you because I first became familiar with you as “Meg” in Upright— you gave a phenomenal performance.

Thank you, it’s lovely to hear that.

It’s true, I mean, you keep it coming, from Upright to this new Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon. But speaking of Upright, I heard that you all are filming Season 2 of the show right now—

We just finished it. So I came home, finished Thrones, and went straight into Season 2 of Upright.

If you could give a 30-second elevator pitch of the premise for Upright, Season 2, how would you give it?

We revisit Meg and Lucky’s weird and wonderful adventures, and they get a lot more weird and kooky characters along the way. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry, but ultimately there’s a beautiful bow tie between the story…The chapter closes there for everyone.

Tim Minchin— your co-star as “Lucky”, and also the show’s writer— describes Meg as “guttural and sweary”, which stuck with me, and made me more curious about how you would describe your character, in your own words.

Meg knows when she has to do the “wrong thing” to do the “right thing”. And she’s extremely empathetic, and extremely emotionally intelligent, which usually gets mistaken for being “guttural and sweaty”. But she knows people, she just doesn’t know how to express it most articulately because of her background.

The two leads— Lucky and Meg— are both misfits of their worlds, drawn together with the beautiful bow tie around their relationship, as you said. Misfits in mind, I read that you dropped out of high school— because it wasn’t your thing— to pursue your acting career. Were you somewhat of a misfit in high school?

I wasn’t a “misfit”, but I did relate to Meg’s feeling about her place in the world— feeling a bit misunderstood, and finding it hard to grasp things that other people found quite easy. I wasn’t a misfit; I always struggled in school, and I repeated a year. So school wasn’t for me because, like Meg, I didn’t know how to communicate what I was trying to get across. I struggled with that. So, a misfit in spirit, but not in practice.

One thing I noticed in Upright is that the desert and the piano are as much a part of the plot as Meg and Lucky’s dynamic. In real life, I believe the desert has a way of upheaving whatever is bubbling beneath the surface within, or in a dynamic. That said, how do you believe the backdrop of the desert enhances the dynamism of Meg and Lucky’s relationship?

I think that the landscape in general is a very key component in our story because it’s an Australian story. And in mainstream media, I never hear my accent on screen, and I never see an Australian story being told, internationally. So think that we utilized the Australian landscape to bring in an international audience, and show that this is what we have to offer as Australians. And Season 2 reflects the landscape that we’re in far north of Queensland, so it’s a completely different landscape— a more tropical landscape. So I think that’s why it’s a key component within the story—because it’s home.

That’s funny you say that, because now when I think about it, I can’t remember the last time I watched a distinctly Australian film or tv series.

You don’t, and that’s the thing— we’ve got great actors and great films, but that’s what’s heartbreaking as an Australian within the industry. The lack of international reach is missing, out feels, at times.

Would you say that you get more roles where you have to put on an American English accent, over quality roles for you as an Australian actress within an Australian production?

I would say that recently there has been an influx in auditioning for international roles where I play an American or a British person, but that’s only because of the path that I decided to take in my career, to make it more international. I don’t live in Australia anymore, so I’m not auditioning for Australian stuff as much, but that’s not to say that there are not quality Aussie projects happening at the moment.

So where are you based, full-time?

In London.

Which part?

East London.

Back to Meg, though. She’s a bit of a feisty female character. From your representation of her, what voice do you feel she gives to women of this generation?

In a metaphorical sense, or a literal sense?

Both.

Meg’s voice is just a voice. But because she’s a woman, there’s this added pressure to overachieve and do better than the man, because that is the standard. So ultimately, she combats, or utilizes her feminine rage through swearing and being provocative so that she has the attention of Lucky, who is this middle-upper class man. So she has to accentuate her emotional state to get his attention and to get him to listen to her because if she just talked normally, he wouldn’t listen to her…as most women feel.

So she’s not as extreme, or feisty as she seems, she’s just acting out to get attention?

Yeah, she’s trying to get heard in the room.

I notice she [Meg] and Lucky have a playful kind of tug-of-war of power play between the two of them, very much like a bossy big brother, annoying little sister kind of thing. What’s your real-life rapport with Tim Minchin?

The real-life rapport between Tim and I was one of mutual understanding’s creative integrity. Tim and I very much leaned on each other over the shoot [filming] as we were faced with many challenges along the way so it was reassuring to have him by my side.

Let’s talk about House of the Dragon, which just premiered. What can we expect in this instalment that we didn’t get in Game of Thrones?

Well, it’s a different show. I think Game of Thrones fans are expecting a similar tone, feeling and pace to the original. But ultimately, Ryan and Miguel [Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, the show’s producers] focused on establishing a new aesthetic within the show to distinguish itself from the mother show. So ultimately, the audience can expect…everything. Because they haven’t seen any of it yet.

One thing I’m curious about is how you handle the proximity in the filming schedule: you filmed Upright, then soon after House of the Dragon, then shortly after that, Season 2 of Upright. Do you find yourself— unwittingly— bleeding aspects of Meg into Princess Rhaenyra, or injecting the regality of Princess Rhaenyra into Meg?

I think that ultimately when you invest so many hours into being a person— you spend more hours being them than you do being yourself— ultimately, the physicality and intonation and the way you move, and carry yourself, and think [as the role] bleeds into you and your everyday life…I’ve carried all of those women with me and unwittingly bled similar aspects, but it’s never intentional…It’s habitual, your body recognizes it.

Can you think of a specific time when you did that?

No—I’ve never specifically done that…That’s the thing, you carry them [the characters] with you, and then you don’t realize that that’s them.

There are moments when you’ve acted as these characters and then afterward realized that you were bleeding those behaviours— unwittingly— in real life. I’m not an actress, but there have been recent series that I’ve watched where I find myself unwittingly emulating certain ticks of the protagonist that I’ve been binge-watching.

Hmmm. It would be more so in a day-to-day sense since I spend more time being these people than I do being me…I am so focused on what’s going on and being truthful to the person I’m playing…Like, I’d find myself standing at the bus stop like Rhaenyra and I’m like, “Oh my God, stop! Put your hands by your side. What are you doing?”. [Laughter]. Or you find yourself standing like a different person, or your voice changes when emotion gets triggered in you in your day-to-day life because you’re so used to access that when you’re working… But never on screen; only in my real life, occasionally.

Did you read Fire and Blood since it’s the inspiration behind House of the Dragon?

Yes. I read parts of Fire and Blood because it’s massive. It’s a historical retelling, so it’s not like a nonfiction book, in a weird way.

And you read it before, or after filming?

Before— I mean, it wouldn’t serve me to read the book if I read it after filming the show.

I watched interviews, and several of your co-stars waited till after the show. I find it common that actors wait till after the filming to read the literary inspiration because they don’t want it to influence their intuitive interpretation.

I know, but everybody’s different, and you’ve got to respect everybody’s processes.

This is true…And I don’t want any of your costars to think I’m coming for them when I said that. [Laughter]. Let’s talk about costumes for the show. Matt Smith— your co-star— has discussed the transformative quality that the wigs have on the show. He starred in The Crown— and it’s funny, because I spoke with Tom Bailey, one of the costars of The Crown, and he emphasized how much the wardrobe and opulence of the set decor put him into character and inspired regality in his reenactments. So I’m curious— for you— what role did the hair, makeup, wardrobe and set decor play in getting you into the role of Princess Rhaenyra for House of the Dragon?

[Whistling music in the background]. Sorry, there’s an ice cream truck. [Laughter]. We talked about you getting that ice cream to cool down. [Laughter].

I know! [Laughter]. I can’t wait till he goes…It’s vital to have costumes and decor that allow you to lose yourself within the space. Game of Thrones is a fantasy, and House of The Dragon isn’t the real world. We don’t exist in the confines of earth, so having the sets and being able to interact with the sets, as opposed to a blue screen or something that you couldn’t tangibly see, touch and feel, was beneficial as an actor to be able to fully invest in that. And ultimately, the costumes change the way that you walk and stand. You can compare your costumes to somebody else’s costumes, and class comes into play, and status comes into play, and their ability to move and not move, and what that means. So it [wardrobe] is essential to accessing them [the characters].

You have a dynamic repertoire of roles under your belt, from The Gloaming, to Upright, to House of the Dragon. Is there a “dream role” that you have in mind that you hope to be cast in?

…It’d probably be Hedda Garbler or Eve in All about Eve.

Wow, that’s a great throwback that I never would’ve expected to hear…Apart from promotional work for the shows, do you have any interesting mid-summer plans?

No, I haven’t been in one place for a very long time because I’ve been working. So I’m really happy just settling, and just slowing down in London, and moving into my first flat.

Sounds like you’re chillin’. So what does the rest of your day look like?

The rest of my day…I’m going to go to a fitting for premiere looks and things, which is very exciting. And I’m going to try and stay out of this heat, and not get dehydrated.

Well, as we say in America, “Stay hydrated!”

Yeah. [Laughter]. And you have a lovely rest of your day…And stay hydrated!

Source: schonmagazine.com