Olivia Cooke Has Mixed Emotions Over Playing A Grandmother At 30 On House Of The Dragon

Olivia Cooke has thoughts on playing a grandmother in House Of The Dragon at only 30 years old.

In the hit series, Olivia plays Alicent Hightower, who shares three children — Aegon, Aemond and Helaena — with King Viserys Targaryen (played in season one by Paddy Considine). 

Recently speaking to The Times, Olivia admitted that she has mixed emotions over the fact that the actors who play her children — Tom Glynn-Carney, 29, Ewan Mitchell, 27, and Phia Saban, 25 — are all around her age in real life. 

“I have really complicated feelings towards it,” she said in the article, published on Friday. “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?”

She added: “It’s strange. I bristle a bit because the years between being a teenager and now a grandma on screen were so short for me.”

“There’s real reticence to see women age on screen,” the actor noted.

Despite sharing a bizarre proximity in age with the co-stars who play her children, Olivia said she is “grateful for the role,” and called her grandmother character “hysterical to play.” 

“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.”

House Of The Dragon, the prequel series to Game Of Thrones, airs on Mondays on Sky and Now in the UK, with new episodes coming every week until August.