House Of The Dragon’s Emily Carey was ‘scared’ ahead of filming sex scenes with co-star Paddy Considine

Actress ,19, said: ‘All I saw was, you know, a 47-year-old man and me, I was a bit concerned’
AFP via Getty Images
Dominique Hines14 September 2022
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Warning: Contains spoilers for House of the Dragon.

House Of The Dragon star Emily Carey has said she initially felt "scared" to shoot sex scenes with co-star Paddy Considine who is 30 years older than her.

The 19-year-old actress plays Alicent Hightower in the Game Of Thrones prequel series alongside 49-year-old Consindine's King Viserys, whom she marries.

In the current episode, Alicent is woken in the middle of the night by her maid who says the King has "requested her presence".

She is then seen lying still while Viserys has sex with her.

Speaking of the scene, she said: "It scared me because, at that point, I still hadn't met Paddy. I didn't know how much of a joy he was and how easy he was going to make the scene.

"The first scene that I read from the show was my sex scene and my intimacy scenes.

House of the Dragon
Carey and co-star Paddy Considine in their roles as Alicent Hightower and King Viserys on House Of The Dragon
HBO

"All I saw was, you know, a 47-year-old man and me, I was a bit concerned."

The actress added that she felt reassured by the presence of an intimacy coordinator on set.

She added to newsweek: "Having that outlet, to be able to talk everything through and not be shunned, or not feel awkward.

"In the rehearsal room, she was a massive help and on set she was a massive help. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be."

Considine and Carey (3rd and 4th L), with the House of the Dragon cast at a panel during Comic-Con International in San Diego, California in July
AFP via Getty Images

Carey has been winning praise for her role as young Alicent.

She also told the publication that one of her biggest challenges making the HBO fantasy hit was to "navigate" her character's relationship with Viserys.

"As an actor, personally, in full transparency, I struggled with Alicent’s relationships with her dad and Viserys,” she added.

"I don’t have an equivalent in real life. I don’t have a dad. And I also have never had a romantic interest — especially not with an older man.

"So to navigate those relationships and the journeys that those individual relationships go on was super challenging... you can feel very far removed from the characters.

House Of The Dragon is set to be one of Considine’s biggest roles. He previously won an Evening Standard Award for Best Actor in short film, Dead Man’s Shoes
AFP via Getty Images

"Of course, none of it’s real and as actors we love to step out of our comfort zones."

However, the star that she ultimately had a good experience filming.

"I enjoyed it," she declared. "It was a lot of fun trying to navigate those relationships. But it was difficult at times, I’ll be honest.

“For the most part, I had the best experience and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

House Of Dragon is set 172 years before Game Of Thrones and is based on George R. R. Martin's novel Fire & Blood.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in