House of the Dragon’s Emily Carey says they were harassed for character’s queerness
Milly Alcock as Princess Rhaenyra and Emily Carey as Lady Alicent. (HBO/Envato/Getty)
Emily Carey has opened up about the online harassment they faced after playing a younger version of Alicent Hightower in HBO’s House of the Dragon.
Speaking to Nikki Lilly for an episode of the Live A Little podcast, released on 5 February, Carey said: “After the show came out, this is quite funny, I got told by hundreds of thousands of people that I was forcing my queerness onto the character, which is wild because we insinuated that there may be an undertone of gayness and everyone went insane.”
Queer actor Carey’s remarks refer to the subtle undertone to Alicent’s relationship with Rhaenyra (played by Milly Alcock), with Carey adding “the fans of that show are insane”.
The vibes between Alicent and Rhaenyra were picked up straight away by fans back in 2022.
One said: “Me watching Alicent and Rhaenyra interacting when I know the story. Gay is in, Gay is hot. I want some gay. Gay it’s going to be.”
While another said: “Not my gay a** shipping Rhaenyra and Alicent knowing damn well it won’t happen.”
Both actors spoke of the potential tension between their characters too in a chat with Insider.
Alcock joked: “I’m just actually in love with Emily and so I think that’s it.”
Carey explained: “It’s something we brought up with Clare Kilner, one of the directors we also work with for the younger version of the characters.
“It was something I was immediately conscious of when I read the script as a queer woman myself.”
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