House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke ‘traumatised’ as director ordered her to lose weight | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV
Olivia Cooke, 28, appeared in two TV dramas as a fresh-faced teenager. During the production for one of those shows, the star claimed the director told her to lose weight despite the fact she was already slim.
The actress is set to play Alicent Hightower in HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon.
Olivia, who was only 18 at the time, had been appearing on two major TV dramas – Blackout with Christopher Eccleston and The Secret of Crickley Hall – though it’s unclear if the director was working on either of these shows.
In a recent interview, she said: “I realised quite early on that the aesthetic and how people perceive your body is quite important.
“For one of my earliest jobs, the director asked me to lose weight for the role. I was already really slim, but I was young.
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“I was 18, so I had a chubby face because I was a child.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m in the movie business, someone’s asked me to lose weight. It’s happening.’”
She explained when the cast found out, they began sneaking her food and she added the experience “traumatised her”.
Olivia went on, claiming that the unnamed director would taunt her with plates of sweet snacks.
The series is set prior to the events of Game of Thrones and follows the origins of the house Targaryen.
In the UK, viewers will be able to tune in on Sky Atlantic and the NOW streaming service.
Speaking in an interview from March 2021, after she had recently been cast in her role, Olivia said she didn’t watch Game of Thrones until after she had landed the role.
Talking with Metro.co.uk at the time, she admitted she couldn’t jump on to the fantasy bandwagon.
