The “House of the Dragon” actress, who took over the role of Alicent Hightower from Emily Carey due to a series time jump, revealed that co-showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal advised her to find inspiration from the disgraced former president. The series creators told Cooke to view the character Queen Alicent like a “woman for Trump.”
“I just didn’t want to give them any more mental real estate than they already had,” Cooke told Entertainment Weekly about calling back to the Trump family. “So I tried to find a different route into her, but I could see what they were saying with this complete indoctrination and denial of her own autonomy and rights. I just couldn’t be asked to go down that road.”
Cooke noted that Alicent has been “bittered and twisted over time” due to her prescribed gender role.
