“I do feel protective of Alicent,” says Olivia Cooke. “I have to be empathetic, and I feel fucking sorry for her. I feel she’s grown up into this patriarchal system and she’s been brainwashed by her father to honor this lineage.” She discussed interactions from fans; “They’ll take a picture, and then they’ll be like: ‘We HATE your character!’ Sometimes people do say that with a lot of malice."

“[Alicent has] really stirred up a lot of feelings,” she says. “It’s odd to be on the receiving end of that as someone who has only ever tried to convey her with as much complexity as possible... It makes me really angry that we’re then supposed to just bow down and [pay] obeisance to these people that only want to say the most debased, hate-filled things. But thankfully, we’ve all experienced it in

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