Olivia Cooke on ‘The Girlfriend’ and ‘House of the Dragon’ Fame

Olivia Cooke is trying to recall her biggest “pinch me” moment since becoming a full-fledged star, but all she can do is cringe.

The 31-year-old has dialed in from Majorca after jumping at the chance to vacation when not needed on the House of the Dragon set — “They’re off shooting a battle at the moment” — and is now reliving the moment the Empire State Building was ceremoniously lit emerald green and a 270-foot dragon wrapped around its crown to mark the season two premiere of HBO’s Golden Globe-winning Game of Thrones prequel.

“I’m terrified of heights,” a sun-kissed Cooke confesses to THR of standing atop the New York City landmark in June of last year. “We went up to the spire, and I had some castmates hanging over the side of it.”

She singles out a particularly daring Tom Glynn-Carney, who fans will best know as King Aegon Targaryen. “I was like, ‘Tom, if you don’t step back, we will not be friends,’” she remembers. “I did one walk around the spire, a picture, and then I was like, ‘I have to go down. I can’t be on a spire in heels.’”

It’s a fitting anecdote for an actor imbued in self-deprecating charm. The British actress is most familiar to audiences as the divisive, headstrong Alicent Hightower in the TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood; a mother wrought by an unyielding sense of duty to her children. And yet, the woman who plays her is anything but a stickler for the rules: the Manchester-born-and-raised Cooke is adorably silly and, in spite of some of the hard-shelled characters she’s brought to the screen, is warm, self-effacing to a fault and gloriously foulmouthed.

Summiting the building King Kong scaled might not have been the career highlight she imagined, but Cooke’s grounded outlook has come from observing others at the top. “I’ve seen people at the height of their careers in this industry,” she says. “They’re all incredibly well-prepared, but also really fucking kind and really empathetic. They don’t rule a set with an iron fist and they don’t shout.”

It’s a sentiment she’s carried with her through stints on Bates Motel (2013-2017), Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (2018) and the six-time Academy Award nominee Sound of Metal (2019). Cooke — who grew up in the English town of Oldham, perched just outside of Manchester, the country’s third-largest city — has been climbing the ranks for some time now, long before landing the role that would propel her to the top of the TV food chain. She’s grown to love Alicent as she would a close friend (“I feel fucking sorry for her”) and is about to present to the world one of 2025’s buzziest new shows, but amidst her ascension from provincial northern England to global stardom there has emerged a yearning for a quieter life, far from the fuss and frill of fame.

In short, Olivia Cooke is knackered.

“I want peace and quiet, and I want to do absolutely nothing,” she says, before clarifying: “In my [personal] life.” Professionally? “I want more out of the stories that I get to tell, and more out of the experiences on set… My curiosity has not been dampened. I think it’s only gotten stronger as I get older. I just crave knowledge from these sages of the industry. I want to work with the best.”

Enter Robin Wright. She and the world-weary Cooke make a ferocious team in Prime Video’s brand new six-part series The Girlfriend, based on Michelle Frances’ 2017 novel of the same name. The U.S. A-lister, who directs and stars in the thriller, coaxed Cooke on board as the deliciously naughty Cherry Laine, the new girlfriend to the son of Wright’s character Laura.

“Olivia is the perfect Cherry,” Wright tells THR about working with the young star. “She’s got a lot of moxie and so much range and she’s such a pro. We had to Zoom for our first meeting and out of the gate I said, ‘I want you for this role!’”

When a talent like Wright comes knocking, you answer. Cooke was all in. “She has such a sparkly face and a wicked glint in her eye,” Cooke teases about her on-screen mother-in-law. “And I find that the most captivating performance is when people can just raise an eyebrow and you’re like: ‘What are you fucking thinking?’”

***

Cooke can hardly believe she’s wound up as an actress. Her first foray into the performing arts was not quite as formal as the training some of her peers had sought at the U.K.’s most prestigious drama schools. Cooke, who says she grew up “spellbound” by musicals like Oliver!, The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music, dabbled in acting at a local theater workshop from the age of eight. “It was more personhood development and learning not to be a dick, how to work in a team,” she admits. “And then a lot of pissing about.” Endearingly defensive of her hometown, she adds: “Not to reduce anything that the company does, because they’re incredible. But I didn’t take it seriously at that point.”

It wasn’t until she was 18 that an already-agented friend of Cooke’s recommended she attend some open auditions. One Google search for “audition monologue” and an Adele cover later, she received a response: “‘We don’t think Olivia’s quite ready to be on the acting side just yet, so maybe we’re going to put her on the commercial side.’” Cue Cooke sat among six-foot teens at modelling castings and a newfound insecurity about her “Manchester gait”: “I’d never done a catwalk in my life, and I walk like Liam Gallagher.”

But she’d landed an agent, and with that luxury came run-ins with industry-renowned casting director Beverley Keogh. (Not before a small cameo riding the back of Harry Styles in a One Direction video, Cooke coyly confirms to be true: “I just remember just being like, ‘Oh, great. I don’t have to go into my cafe job today. I’m getting paid 250 quid to frolic with One Direction.”)

Keogh helped Cooke get on the industry radar. After a role as Christopher Eccleston’s daughter on BBC One’s 2012 series Blackout, Cooke found herself living in Vancouver for nine months to shoot the hugely popular U.S. horror-drama Bates Motel. It was here, at just 21, she decided to make the move to New York and position herself as an aspiring Hollywood starlet. “I’d never lived anywhere else apart from my mum’s house,” she says. “So I had to be a grown-up very quickly, and cook tuna pasta every night because I didn’t know what else to cook.”

It was also at this time that the Briton had been cast in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a 2015 coming-of-age film set in the U.S. All of a sudden, Cooke was rubbing shoulders with some of America’s brightest young talents — Thomas Mann, R.J. Cyler — and seasoned stars, including Nick Offerman, Jon Bernthal and Connie Britton.

It’s not an era Cooke thinks of entirely fondly. “I feel sort of disassociated from that time now,” she begins. “It all felt so fast-paced and adrenalized… I didn’t stop, and I was over just dragging my suitcase and going from job to job to job. I just needed some roots. I’m so boring now,” she laughs. “And I’m such a homebody that I can’t believe I was so intrepid.” It brings up some overdue introspection for the star: “I was so weenie. I was just pretending to be a woman. I was hanging around with a lot of older people, and I didn’t really know who I was. I think I was masking a lot of fear and pressure that I put on myself.”

Cooke found herself homesick for her native Britain. She missed her friends and their no-nonsense senses of humor — a cultural sensibility not for the faint-hearted. “I just needed someone to take the piss out of me and for me to take the piss out of them, too,” she says. “I remember my boyfriend at the time in New York would be like, ‘You’re really mean.’ I was like, ‘No, I’m saying it with such love and endearment! Do it back to me!’ But it doesn’t really translate.”

When the pandemic arrived, an entire world was brought to a standstill. Despite her reservations about the state of the industry, a 26-year-old Cooke was ecstatic upon her return to the U.K.: “It was the first time that I had taken a breath.” It was also the first time since her career boom that she learned the value of slowing down; a weapon the homebody has firmly stored in her arsenal. Just in time, too — Cooke was about to experience a level of fame she’d never known before.

“It got a bit squeaky bum time,” Cooke says about finding herself deep in the throes of a months-long audition process for a hotly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series (for U.S. readers, this phrase is a Brits’ way of saying time was dwindling, and the pressure was rising). It was August 2020, and even entertainment’s most celebrated hall-of-famers were confined to their homes while COVID wreaked havoc.

Many of those auditioning for female characters had been asked to read for Rhaenyra Targaryen, a role that eventually went to fellow Brit Emma D’Arcy (and Milly Alcock, as the younger version). But the showrunners were soon eyeing a dark-haired, brown-eyed Cooke for the older role of Rhaenyra’s childhood best friend Alicent Hightower, the second wife of King Viserys (Paddy Considine) and daughter of Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans).

“I got a call saying, ‘They want to put you on hold for two weeks, so don’t take any other jobs,’” Cooke explains. “And I was like, ‘Absolutely fine. There are no jobs going but sure, if they want to think that I’m incredibly in demand.’ Then, in October, I got the call that that they wanted to offer me the part. When something goes on for that long, you go beyond wanting it. It becomes, ‘Well, I’ve imagined my whole life doing this job now.’ It felt really important that I got it. So, thank God I did.”

Crouched down against the wall in her London flat, Cooke celebrated for a moment before feeling a weighty sense of dread. “I don’t think I understood it, but I felt it,” she says about having to lead the next instalment in what has become one of the most successful franchises in TV history. “I felt it right next to my head, looming like some sort of omnipotent force.”

At the end of season two, Alicent is driven to the ultimate sacrifice. Despite her sons’ best attempts at decimating (in true Targaryen fashion) a precarious political and familial infrastructure, she has managed to keep her only daughter alive (Helaena Targaryen, played by Phia Saban). Team Black are finally united and have added more dragon-riders to their army. The finale was watched by 8.9 million people across the States. It saw Alicent — who had spent much of the season attempting to determine whether the ghastly behavior of some of her children was the result of nature or nurture — defiantly opting to escape with Helaena and vowing to help Rhaenyra take back the crown. 

“I do feel protective of Alicent,” says Cooke. “I have to be empathetic, and I feel fucking sorry for her. I feel she’s grown up into this patriarchal system and she’s been brainwashed by her father to honor this lineage.” 

In the context of some not-so-nice fan interactions, Cooke recalls being on the receiving end of some bold comments, including personal takes about her depiction of Alicent and the character as a whole. “They’ll take a picture, and then they’ll be like: ‘We HATE your character!’ Sometimes people do say that with a lot of malice.”

The commotion has come as a surprise to Cooke, who didn’t foresee her role as such a divisive one. “[Alicent has] really stirred up a lot of feelings,” she says. “It’s odd to be on the receiving end of that as someone who has only ever tried to convey her with as much complexity as possible.” The reception to the Emmy-nominated series thrust Cooke and her castmates into the spotlight, and it’s not a perk of the job she’s enjoyed.

Thus far, episodes have dropped weekly. It’s a savvy strategy from HBO: hype builds around each instalment and explodes on social media as it airs, drawing thousands of fans to X, TikTok, Reddit and Instagram. With this chaos comes scrutiny — some fans of Martin’s writing are so passionately loyal that fact and fiction blur, and the actors are treated as if they OK’d sending dragons into battle themselves. Alicent is one of the more contentious characters — a selection of recent tweets call her the C-word, “annoying as fuck,” and “a bitch that needs to be put down.”

“Some of the fans have been fucking horrible to our cast,” Cooke says, adding that she has found solace in the likes of D’Arcy and Doctor Who star Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), who have faced similar criticism. “It makes me really angry that we’re then supposed to just bow down and [pay] obeisance to these people that only want to say the most debased, hate-filled things. But thankfully, we’ve all experienced it in our own way, and we’ve got each other, which doesn’t make it right.”

For Cooke, the intense fandom is “very particular” to the GOT and HOTD fandom. “I think [it’s the] huge emotions. There’s also been really wonderful interactions and I’m so glad that Emma gets as much love as they do as well, because they’re fucking fantastic and such a beautiful, wonderful human as well… Matt’s not a stranger to the fury of fandom so he takes it on the chin. He holds himself in a really lovely way where he doesn’t let it stick to him.” Cooke, however, has struggled with the attention for her entire career. “I think it’s the Mancunian in me — I don’t want anyone to think that I think too highly of myself.”

This furor over Alicent has rung alarm bells for Cooke, who says the kind of misogyny her character experiences is mirrored by the real world. “It’s only really getting worse,” she says. “I think about the women in Afghanistan who haven’t had the right to an education or work for years now, the rise of Andrew Tate and [prominent U.K. far-right activist] Tommy Robinson dismissing any agency or autonomy that women should have as an innate human right. Obviously, we’re so wonderful and so powerful and we’re clearly something to be envied. And they want to take away all our rights because we’re so amazing. I say that about non-binary people, trans people, about queer people in general. Despite the adversity, we are fucking incredible — and that makes straight men insane.”

Making straight men insane comes with the territory on one of TV’s most-talked about shows of the last five years (House of the Dragon continues to rack up toward 10 million viewers per ep). She’s due back on set in late August to film for another few months before wrapping on season three mid-October. Will audiences finally get the fiery clash we’ve been waiting for? “They’ll get that for sure,” promises Cooke. “No worries about all the big fighty, fighty, dragon, dragon stuff.” On Alison’s arc, she adds: “How do I say this without the red dot coming up on my forehead? She’s made up her mind, she feels pretty stalwart and she is trying to enact that no matter what happens to the people around her.”

Season four, to her knowledge, remains un-written.

***

On Sept. 10, Amazon will drop all six episodes of the gloriously binge-worthy The Girlfriend, from director-star Robin Wright. In the show, Cooke plays Cherry opposite Laurie Davidson’s Daniel. Cherry has worked hard to escape her working class upbringing and Daniel’s excessively wealthy family are emblematic of the life she pictures for herself. The only issue is his mother Laura (Wright), a woman who has lost a child once before and is petrified of a repeat. What unfolds is a finger-pointing game of Who’s Behaved Worse? with Cherry and Laura’s varying recollections of their encounters clouding our comprehension. Waleed Zuaiter, Anna Chancellor, Francesca Corney and Shalom Brune-Franklin also star.

Wright wanted Cooke for the role of Cherry immediately. The Forrest Gump and House of Cards alum had signed on to just direct, but “the production company were like, ‘It’s Robin Wright,’” recalls Cooke. “You’ve got to be in it as well…”

Was it odd having Wright star in the show while calling the shots? Not at all, apparently. “It felt like the tone of the show was streamlined,” says Cooke. “She was in nearly every scene, so it felt like the chain of command was shortened, which was fantastic. Just watching her in a scene, she’d be so emotional and raw and crying her eyes out, and then she’d be like [Cooke slides into a flawless Californian accent mid-sentence]: ‘Okay, cut. We’re just gonna do a wide now, is that okay? Okay, let’s move on.’”

“Olivia is such a trouper,” says Wright. “She is one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met — we would turn the switches on to do the scenes with intense tension as our characters, and as soon as cut was called we would be back to ourselves, giggling about the ludicrous things we just did to each other in a scene.”

No spoilers, of course, but the ludicrously-behaved duo take things to the extreme. Says Cooke of the common ground between her and Cherry: “I think we’ve both got pretty strong work ethics. That’s where it [ends]. I’m so different to her. I’m in awe of someone who can behave like Cherry, who is really in touch with her anger and can just fucking go ballistic at someone. That must feel amazing.”

The show preys on the audience’s foggy memory, leading us into a gray area where both Laura and Cherry are to blame for the show’s cliffhanger events. “It gets quite brilliant,” says Cooke, pondering over who viewers might be inclined to side with. “I think it depends completely on where you are in life. 

Because I think my mum, who has not been fond of some of my boyfriends in the past, will be on Laura’s side and [think], ‘You will do anything to protect your baby.’ I’m obviously on Cherry’s side. I don’t mind that she omits the truths or tells half truths to get where she’s going. Because millionaires do that all the time and no one calls them out. I love her confidence and gumption.”

Playing the character, much like Alicent Hightower in her stubbornness and strength, has been something of a purifying experience for Cooke. “I get to access those different parts of myself in more of a controlled environment that feels bit safer… I don’t like to display any intense emotion in my personal life. I mean, I’m talking to my therapist about it and any hard emotions I push to the side and repress pop out in other horrible ways. So I do feel like it’s quite cathartic for me.”

She’s gearing up to watch The Girlfriend with a gaggle of her closest friends: “This sort of TV show pairs perfectly with a Sauvignon Blanc. I hate watching things on my own — it feels so sterile.” And while Cooke tells THR she’s been hankering for a little more respite than the last couple of years, there’s no denying she’ll have to get used to seeing herself on-screen (as long as it’s not disrupting her peace too much).

Joachim Trier, Paul Thomas Anderson and Celine Song are among her dream collaborators, and if Wright’s judgement is anything to go by, Cooke is destined for the best.

With a sharp pang of patriotism, she also cites the breadth of emerging talent in the U.K. film and TV industry (with an F-bomb, of course). Adds Cooke: “And I hate the word storyteller, but I think we’re really good at telling a fucking story, us Brits.”

All six-episodes of The Girlfriend will be available on Sept. 10, exclusively on Prime Video worldwide.

A version of this story appeared in the Sep. 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.