House of the Dragon star Emily Carey can finally talk about Alicent's game-changing development

Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 1, episode 2.

Anyone who has read George R.R. Martin's book Fire and Blood knows there's a crucial plot point that has been kept under wraps on HBO's House of the Dragon so far.

The series chronicles the Targaryen civil war that began in the aftermath of King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) naming his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), heir to the Iron Throne. After the death of his wife, Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke), Viserys remarries and conceives a son, Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), which eventually splits the kingdom in two over the matter of succession. That much has been confirmed ahead of the premiere, but the other big part of this conflict that's been left out is the fact that Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), the best friend of Rhaenyra, is the one who marries Viserys and gives birth to Aegon.

"I'm so glad I can talk about this now. This is a big one," Carey, who uses she/they pronouns, tells EW on the West of Westeros podcast after the reveal came in House of the Dragon's second episode. "It changes one of the branches of the show, if that makes sense. It pushes things in a different direction. And for my character it's, of course, a massive turn."

Carey's first proper day spent filming House of the Dragon included their episode 1 scene with Viserys: Alicent visits the king's bed chambers during his moment of grief at the insistence of her father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans). There were multiple ways Carey could've approached this moment. Is Alicent, who's wearing her late mother's dress in this meeting, fearful? Is she duty-bound to fulfill this task for her family? Does she know that this could be the first step to becoming queen and is determined to see it through?

Carey brought all these questions to Miguel Sapochnik, co-showrunner on House of the Dragon with Ryan Condal, "He just went, 'Yes. That!'" she recalls. "I was like, 'What?' And he was like, 'All of it. That's what we want.'" She decided to play into that confusion. "I was confused as an actor in not knowing what Alicent should be feeling, and then I also realized that's exactly how she's feeling. 'I should be happy. This should be what I want, but is it actually what I want?'" Carey explains.

Viewers may peg Alicent as a villain after this, but Carey sympathizes with the character's situation, pointing to the "huge pressures that should not be placed on 14-year-old girls." In the case of Alicent, that took the form of her father orchestrating her engagement to Viserys.

Carey was admittedly nervous when she first read the script for House of the Dragon. At the age of 17 when she began the show, she would have to play a young girl in a relationship with a fully grown man. (Carey is now 19. Considine is 48.) How was she going to form a bond with her costar? Considine and the showrunners made Carey feel at ease. And the answer to that question turned out to be RuPaul's Drag Race.

"Paddy is a massive Drag Race fan, and so am I," Carey mentions. "So I'd come into set and be like, 'Hey, Paddy, did you watch the new episode of All Stars?' He'd be like, 'Oh my God, yes! Let's talk about it.' And so that's how we'd start every morning."

She recalls one moment in particular while filming the premiere episode's tourney. Everyone was feeling a bit delirious in the face of a long shoot day. "It felt like a weird school trip or a family day out with all of us there at one time," Carey says. "The stunt guys would line up to joust at the other end. There'd be these big sweeping wide shots. They couldn't really hear what we were saying. So the horses would whinny or whatever, and then you'd hear from behind us, 'Two jousters stand before me. Are you ready to joust. For. Your. Life?!'" That would be courtesy of Considine. "It was so funny. He was really getting into it."

Carey now hopes to use her newfound international recognition from House of the Dragon to land a guest-judge spot on Drag Race. She says she's already had discussions about it. "I've asked, we're talking about it. Don't you worry, I'm going to get there. I'm going to make it happen," Carey declares. "Honestly, I think I'd just cry the whole time. I think I would just sob the entire time. I grew up on that show. I love Drag Race, and I love drag as a performance art. I think it's beautiful."

An unlikely friendship formed between Carey and Considine because of this love of drag, not unlike the kind of relationship that forms between Alicent and Viserys. Carey sees that character dynamic as a particularly strange connection. "They find this emotional vulnerability with one another that I don't think they really find with anyone else," she notes. "There's an underlying guilt from both sides, especially when it comes to the point of marriage... But I think they bring out a softness in one another."

After episode 1 of the first season, some viewers picked up on possible flirtations between Alicent and Rhaenyra. While studying Westeros history at the base of a weirwood tree, Rhaenyra rests her head on Alicent's thigh and cheekily remarks, "I rather like this position." The princess also brings up her desire to travel the world with her friend on dragon-back.

As a self-identifying queer woman, Carey picked up on those undertones in the script. She confirms it's something she and Alcock discussed with each other. Ultimately, it speaks more to the specificity of relationships girls can have that boys are discouraged from.

"Fourteen-year-old girls are allowed to change in front of each other when boys aren't, and you go to the bathroom together. Just like this tactile closeness and this emotional vulnerability that you share with one another, it's almost like having a partner," Carey says. "You want to be with that person all the time, and all in all just encapsulating you with love. You just want to love that person so deeply, and you think your best friend of 14 is going to be your best friend for the rest of your life. It does toe the line between platonic and romantic. But I also think, at 14, you don't know what those words mean. You don't know what the feelings mean. It's just love. That's all it is. Whether it's friendship or more than that, I think it's up to how you want to see it, but it was talked about for sure. As a viewer, I like to read into it because I also think that it makes the demise of the friendship more heartbreaking to watch... I would love if they were a little bit fruity, but it's up to you how you want to read it. It's just a beautiful bond between two young girls, let's put it that way."

Listen to the full conversation with Carey — which includes their season 1 deleted scene, coming up with Alicent's nail-biting ticks, and dealing with the spotlight of Game of Thrones — on EW's West of Westeros podcast. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for more exclusive interviews.

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