'House Of The Dragon' Actress Milly Alcock Finds Fame 'Straining'

Not a lot of celebrities get used to the limelight easily, and Milly Alcock from the hot new HBO series "House of the Dragon" is one of them. The 22-year-old stars as Rhaenyra Targaryen in the "Game of Thrones" prequel.

Although this is not her first movie role, it is her biggest hence her unfamiliarity with her sudden popularity. The series premiered in August this year to a very large audience, including almost every fan of "Game of Thrones," which was immensely popular during its run.

The actress recently appeared in an interview and shed some light on handling her current popularity. Alcock described the entire process as "straining" and revealed that she only looked at things online that were necessary. The 22-year-old also said she did not have a lot of famous people in her life, so she didn't know who to talk to.

Read on to learn more.

Alcock recently joined Nylon Magazine in an interview and revealed that she wasn't having the best time navigating her newfound popularity. According to the actress, she was doing her best not to engage in it because it made her "incredibly anxious." Alcock also revealed that she felt like seeing her face everywhere was "straining" and overall described fame as hard to navigate."

She said, "It's like a part-time job, really. I don't know. I'm trying to not look at it and trying not to engage with it because it doesn't benefit me."

The 22-year-old continued, "It just makes me incredibly anxious. Me seeing my face constantly is straining. No one should have to do that. It f--kin' sucks, man. I don't know how the socialites of the world can do that. It's kind of driving me off the wall. It's an incredibly difficult space to navigate."

Alcock further revealed that she did not have any particular relationship with many famous people, so there was no one to get advice from. Everyone she had personal relationships with was mostly "very normal," and she didn't particularly have any family members involved in the arts.

"1 don't really know anyone whose kind of gone through what I'm going through. All of my friends are very normal and go to uni and just do very basic things, and my family's not in the arts whatsoever, so it's strange," the actress said.

"It feels like someone's opened Pandora's box, and you're kind of just looking through the looking glass. It's a bit Alice in Wonderland-y. It's fucking weird."

When asked about her onscreen relationship with Alicent Hightower, played by Emily Carey, Alcock revealed that she thought it was ironic that the storyline was somewhat blossoming in the real world.

The 22-year-old explained that per the storyline, the former close friends were pitted against each other by forces beyond their control, and the same was being done now as she and Carey were apparently being compared to each other.

"I think the irony that I've kind of found over the show coming out is that House of the Dragon highlights, yes, the patriarchy, yes, misogyny," Alcock said. "But also the internalized misogyny that these two women are forced to face. They're forced to be put at odds with one another by the choices by men."

She added, "But what I found quite hilarious is that the fan base is also putting the actors, the young Alicent and the young Rhaenyra, at odds with each other, and choosing who's better, also by decision of mostly men. So I think that it's really just fucking ironic."

Further on in her Nylon interview, Alcock revealed that when she started filming the show, she constantly feared that she would get fired. She also described the entire filing process as "incredibly intimidating," but she was able to adjust in time.

"You quickly adapt, and it all becomes quite normal," the star admitted. "But the first two, three months, I just thought I was going to get fired constantly. It was incredibly intimidating."

Despite her fear, Alcock said the experience while filming felt "incredibly new and exciting and daunting" to her. The 22-year-old has reportedly only been involved in Australian productions, so seeing the vast difference in budgets was shocking at first.