House of the Dragon‘s most memorable moments tend to be flashy, (quite literally) fiery, and shot through with agonizing 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 involving surprising restraint before on House of the Dragon. Another big example from season two came in the premiere, when Heleana witnessed her young son’s brutal beheading, then scampered through the Red Keep to deliver the news with an apparent lack of emotion. But that’s different than the way we saw Alicent react in “Regent” when the Small Council picked her son, Aemond, to rule in place of the gravely injured King Aegon.
It’s a two-fisted blow, because not only are they shoving the far more experienced Alicent aside, mostly based on the fact that she happens to be a woman, they’re also appointing someone she knows will be a cruel leader. She also suspects, correctly, that Aemond’s the reason Aegon returned from battle in such horrible shape.
In the scene, instead of focusing on the smug, newly promoted Aemond as he starts issuing orders, Kilner brings the camera in on Alicent’s face as the sound in the room around her becomes quieter, and her physical reaction (rapid breathing, rapid heart beat) to what’s just happened becomes apparent. In Olivia Cooke’s carefully calibrated expression, you see a woman feeling a blender of emotions: angry, disrespected, and insulted—but also panic. She’s terrified about what this will mean for the future.
Speaking to the Wrap, Kilner explained why she held that shot on Cooke’s mesmerizing performance. “For every scene, I do loads of prep beforehand in terms of breaking down the scene and looking at the characters, but I also walk onto the set with my DP and we talk about if we had just one long shot how would we shoot it,” the director said. “I was just like ‘this would all be on Alicent. I could shoot this whole scene on Alicent.’ Also because Olivia Cooke just quietly brings everything. Behind those eyes there is so much going on.”
Kilner explained that she and her team all knew that was the correct choice. “Sometimes you don’t know if studio or people will let you do that. Everyone was on board with that. It just became so patently obvious that this huge betrayal was happening,” she said.
New episodes of House of the Dragon arrive Sundays on HBO and Max.
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