Believe it or not, Milly Alcock says that House Of The Dragon kiss wasn’t awkward to film
Alcock says her chummy relationship with a certain costar and the use of an intimacy coordinator helped with an especially skin-crawly episode 4 scene
Aux News Milly Alcock
(This post contains spoilers for House Of The Dragon season 1, episode 4. Proceed with caution!)
From the perspective of this non-actor, there are few aspects of showbiz that seem more uncomfortable than filming a sex scene—one of them, however, is definitely filming an incestuous one. In Game Of Thrones, familial sexual tension was all but par for the course, whether between Cersei and Jaime Lannister or Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen.
Now House Of The Dragon, HBO’s Targaryen-focused prequel to the series, is following in the same footsteps with (spoiler!) a romance between Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and her uncle, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). In episode 4 of the series, Rhaenyra and Daemon share a kiss while in the midst of a brothel after venturing out into the city in disguises.
The kiss is weird, it’s wrong, and it’s an inherently Targaryen move (how else do they all stay so blonde?) But according to Alcock, filming a scene where Rhaenyra is decidedly unsafe still felt safe somehow. The actor credited two main things for this: her comfortable onset relationship with Smith and the support of an intimacy coordinator.
“[Smith and I] were just kind of mates. So, it was quite comfortable,” Alcock tells the New York Post. “We had an intimacy coordinator, and we worked with her through the rehearsal process and blocked it out months before.”
Although they choreographed the kiss for months in advance, Alcock also reveals that she and Smith hadn’t practiced with the active brothel around them—in fact, they hadn’t even laid eyes on the setup.
“Clare Kilner, our director, made sure that we hadn’t seen any of the brothel stuff until we were shooting,” said Alcock. “So, that was our first time walking through the brothel, and he’s guiding her through the room with all of these other bodies. So, that was quite shocking. You’re like, ‘This is kind of weird and silly.’”
She continues: “There were extras who we had just met who were like, 69-ing for 12 hours. It’s pretty gnarly. We felt pretty overdressed, because everyone else was nude.” Overdressed or under, it seems pretty clear from Alcock’s read: you’re never fully dressed without an intimacy coordinator, blocking, and a whole lot of friendly trust.
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69-ing for 12 hours does sound pretty gnarly.
unless maybe you’re John Kruk.
But I’m sure all of the extras had intimacy coordinators so that they could safely and modestly block out and rehearse their 69-ing months in advance.
Right, that was so odd praising the intimacy coordinator and the 4 month prep time almost in the same breath she expresses amusement that extras who just met had to go at it all day. Bizarre.
WTF does block out even mean?
“Block out” is to fully block the entire scene. As in when Rhaenyra walks past, you will cup her breast while she forces her thigh between your legs and you both roll slightly to the right so that the camera doesn’t pick up the tattoo on your back.
In theater “blocking” is the process of figuring out where to move and when around the set. And in this kind of thing, I guess, where to put your hands or mouth and when, or not.
“Blocking” in a dramatic production means sort of like choreographing; you work out how the actors will move and, in the case of something on film, where the camera is placed.
“Block out” is basically choreography for non dance/musical acting. It’s one of the stages of scene rehearsal when they plan out the physical movements of the actors. Everything from where they’ll stand, walk, put their arms and hands, how they’re going to move or hold themselves, etc.
To be fair to HBO, they frequently hire porn actors for scenes like those. Obviously setting boundaries is important for porn actors as well, but I suspect they are far more comfortable with HBO-level nudity and are unlikely to feel pressured into going beyond those boundaries on the HOD set.
Porn actor hired for HOTD sex-extra: “Oh, I only have to 69 for 12 hours while this weird little kid and Prince Philip watch? Cool, once I had to DV/DA for like 18 hours!”
when you are givvin and gettin!
logged in to give you a star for that comment!
I can’t do *anything* for 12 hours any more.
Robert’s Rebellion was good. When I was watching that scene was like yes, I can’t wait for the Targaryen’s to be kicked out of Westeros. I spent all of GoT hating Dany for feeling entitled to the throne. Targs suck.
Targs suck.
Next you’ll be saying Gagh isn’t best served live!
Why would you say something so controversial and yet so true?
You’d think it was non-controversial, but people loved Dany!
Did the Targaryen Dynasty need to end? Almost certainly.Was it a good idea to replace it with the high school jock who killed the most honorable, virtuous and high-minded Targaryen in generations mostly because he was mad that his crush picked a different prom date? Definitely not.
Robert was a flawed hero for sure but he didn’t fuck his relatives!
Just everyone else.
I mean to be fair, Bob and the Lannisters weren’t exactly an improvement hahaha.. the rebellion was 100% justified after Brandon and co though, of course.I will say though, Jahaerys the old was a damn good king by all accounts, had a long and awesome benevolent reign. It’s just he’s the exception and not the rule, their track record is as spotty as Roman emperors. In Danys defense, she was raised with Viserys’ propaganda & didn’t know any better, thinking starks are just bobs dogs, but once she meets barristan it becomes more willful ignorance. Daemon is a total boss though in the books, he’s the best part of the civil war for sure, and Bloodraven was damn good for the realm, not to mention Egg/Aegon V, they definitely have some occasional awesome members. Rhaegar was by all accounts, even Ned himself, an honorable, intelligent and chill guy too, infinitely better option than Bob haha..and had plans to force Aerys off the throne before the rebellion.The real solution to the rebellion would be to have Ned meet with Lyanna and Rhaegar, realize what was going on, and with their alliance they’d have Done/the stormlands/the west/vale/north and easily take Aerys off the throne, keep all the best kingsguard alive, tywin never gets his gambit to power, everything works out hahaha
That headline is pretty unfair to Alcock.And this incredulity as well: “But according to Alcock, filming a scene where Rhaenyra is decidedly unsafe still felt safe somehow.”
I definitely don’t get why it would be more awkward or problematic to shoot an intimate scene where the characters are related than one where they aren’t. I mean, surely on the day what matters is the relationship between the actors and the crew, not the characters.
I like her. It’s too bad she gets replaced in Season 1 with an older actor.
Putting in a plug here for the Australian show “Upright”, where Milly Alcock and Tim Minchin transport a piano across the bottom of Australia. Good luck finding it legally, but it’s maybe the best four hours of television I’ve ever seen. She’s great in it as a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, so sometimes she’s very helpful and sometimes she’s a teenager. It was an amazing show, and it’s a shame that nobody outside the penal colony saw it.
“Putting in a plug here…” Phrasing!
Huh. So an actor who kisses another actor, who is in fact not related to her, isn’t awkward. Shocking.
Well it seems like they are good friends off set so it could be a little awkward.
There’s like a 20 year age difference. How good of friends can they be?
Don’t know, I know nothing about either of them, but the way she talked about it it seems like they are pretty good friends.
It is a bit odd given he’s 40, and she looks about 13.
Also turns out she didn’t have to go through ANY of the stages of grief when her “mother” died giving childbirth. Whip smart, this one.
Yeah I kind of rolled my eyes at that, like “but NOTHING is MORE awkward than filming an incest scene!” Well, the actors aren’t actually related to each other soooo……
Incest is really having its moment in popular culture. It’s not an area I’m particularly interested in researching, but does the GoT phenomenon match up with the otherwise inexplicable rise of fake incest porn online? I mean that stuff is pervasive now.I know that “incest” porn existed before GoT, but is there another explanation for its rise to prominence?
I wasn’t thrilled about the casting when I watched the first episode. Now 4 episodes in, the casting was PERFECT. Outstanding job by GOT producers. Each episode gets better. I will miss Milly Alcock. However, HBO has a great series once again. I still have my reservations about LOTR series on Amazon. Even though, I will watch both until the very end. LOTR may be lucky they got two season guarantee. LOTR is a bit slow and going nowhere. GOT is firing on all cylinders. Milly had a big job playing a Targaryen and nailed it. She has such an infectious smile and demeanor. She has a promising career ahead.
“But according to Alcock, filming a scene where Rhaenyra is decidedly unsafe still felt safe somehow.”When did grown adults forget that actors ACT? I mean, for fuck’s sake, this is an article about whether a kissing scene between professional actors was awkward because the CHARACTERS they play are related.
Also, I think it’s interesting that this article is about a kissing scene when there was a full-on, literal sex scene just a few minutes later in which Miss Alcock didn’t have to only KISS a man she isn’t involved with, but she got topless in front of the entire crew.
There were extras who we had just met who were like, 69-ing for 12 hours.I want an interview with these guys
As someone with a little bit of experience in casting (like, decades ago), it’s hard to believe the industry went without intimacy coordinators for all this time.
Sean Bean can’t believe it.
She continues: “There were extras who we had just met who were like, 69-ing for 12 hours.Honestly, that sounds abusive.
familial sexual tension was all but par for the course, whether between Cersei and Jaime Lannister or Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen.
Don’t forget Daenerys and Aegon Targaryen nee Jon Snow.
I wonder if she knew the guy she was kissing was an actor, not really her uncle, and maybe that helped. Important lesson if so.
“…while in the midst of a brothel…”This doesn’t work.
Ok, how about “in the midst of a brothel/artisanal doughnut shoppe”?
ps. those aren’t sprinkles
Left out Jon Snow and his aunt.
Why would it be awkward, everyone involved are very much adult.
My shock was due to thinking she was like 14 years old. In reality she is 22 and he is 39.
extras who we had just met who were like, 69-ing for 12 hoursYou could try 138-ing for 6 hours and save half the time.