House of the Dragon‘s most memorable moments are often flashy, (literally) fiery, and laced with painful violence. There was plenty of that in last week’s episode, but episode five, “Regent,” which aired last night, gave us one of the most powerful reactions we’ve ever seen on the show — and also one of the quietest. In a new interview, “Regent” director Clare Kilner discussed how it all came together.
We’ve seen admirable choices before that were surprisingly restrained. House of the Dragon. Another great example from season two came in the premiere, when Heleana witnessed the brutal beheading of her young son, then ran through the Red Keep to deliver the news with a seeming lack of emotion. But that’s a different story than the way we saw Alicent react in “Regent” when the Small Council chose her son, Aemond, to rule in place of the gravely injured King Aegon.
It’s a double whammy, because not only do they push aside the much more experienced Alicent, mainly on the basis that she happens to be a woman, they also appoint someone they know will be a cruel leader. She also suspects, correctly, that Aemond is the reason Aegon returned from battle in such a terrible state.
In the scene, Kilner doesn’t focus on the smug, newly promoted Aemond as he starts issuing orders, but instead he trains the camera on Alicent’s face as the noise in the room around her quiets and her physical reaction (rapid breathing, rapid heartbeat) to what has just happened becomes clear. Olivia Cooke’s carefully calibrated expression shows a woman feeling a mix of emotions: anger, disrespect, and insult, but also panic. She’s terrified of what this will mean for the future.
Speaking to the Wrap , Kilner explained why she held on to that shot of Cooke’s mesmerizing performance. “For every scene, I do a ton of prep ahead of time, breaking it down and looking at the characters, but I also walk onto set with my DP and we talk about how we would shoot it if we only had one long shot,” the director said. “I just thought, ‘This would all be on Alicent. I could shoot this whole scene on Alicent.’ Also because Olivia Cooke just brings it all forward so quietly. There’s so much going on behind those eyes.”
Kilner explained that she and her team all knew it was the right thing to do. “Sometimes you don’t know if the studio or people are going to let you do it. Everyone was on board with it. It just became so obvious that this huge betrayal was happening,” she said.
New episodes of House of the Dragon arriving on HBO and Max on Sunday.
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