Olivia Cooke talks about the casting of Tom Glynn-Carney as his son in ‘House of the Dragon’ when there’s a one year gap between them: ‘Is this just Hollywood? they don’t want to see women age?’

*her

110% is Hollywood and society at large. Women start being cast older at 30 something and are judged in youth for not seeming old/mature/sexy enough. There are countless instances of women close in age being cast as mother and daughter too.

Also, as someone in ny 20s, I already feel “old” because of stuff like this!! I am glad that women in the industry are speaking on the double standard.

She is 100% right.

But, In fairness in this one case, she’s the rightish age. She’s 32 and is playing Alicent from 28ish-34ish.

He’s too old for the part. I mean he’s perfect for it and no complaints about the casting at all. He looks like her son with Targ coloring. But he’s supposed to be younger she’s not supposed to be older. Aegon is supposed to be 18ish in season 2.

All the ishes because the show isn’t perfect with timelines.

But generally she is absolutely right.

I think Olivia is great but I do not think she was properly cast in this role. She looks the same age as her “younger” self. They should’ve cast an older actress. 

It’s not so bad with Milly and Emma because Milly is so baby faced and Emma has a more unique look, although Emma could’ve been older too. 

I just want to say I agree, Olivia is a fantastic actress!

Wasn’t a huge part of her characters tragic arc the fact that she was like in her mid teens when her father pressured her to marry her best friend’s old dad? While she’s got a point about Hollywood at large this is unfortunately a bad example to pick because her being so young is a huge part of the point and her character. 

It wasn’t just ‘we can’t have women look older,’ it was a deliberate casting choice to reflect a huge part of the narrative- this woman is ridiculously young to be in the position she’s in. While Rhaenyra was going off and having adventures and being young, Alicent was saddled with being a wife to an old man and having to have his kids. No adventures for her. No youth for her. Just grim duty, as daughter to her father, then wife to her husband. 

The casting worked great because she looks so young- she doesn’t have the gravity of, say, Lena Headey as Cersei who just exuded that aura of confident authority that only comes with experience. Cersei owned the room, but Alicent as played by Cook always gave off a very nervous energy like she didn’t know what she was doing and was terrified people would realise it.

In the few times I’ve come across people who were teenagers when they became moms (15 in once case) I def thought their kid was like their friend or something because they looked close in age.

I agree with her, but the real issue is that Tom Glynn-Carney is too old for Aegon. This is not a case of Hollywood not wanting women to age. She is about the same age as her character whereas her son should be in his early 20s at most

God, those dimples. Marry me.

Olivia is right!

Does this confirm she dead this season? Speaking freely etc

Look on one hand I understand her POV.

On the onther hand, all the adult generation actors are playing characters way older than them. Both men and women.

Due to the show having big time skips

Olivia is now 33 year old(27 in S1) who played the character for ages from 28 to 34 year old.

Same case with Emma.

Matt smith now 44 year (38 during S1)old is playing someone most likely 30 to now 50+ ages

Fabien is a now 32 year old playing ages from like 20-40 without any effort to make him look older

By book timeline Viserys and Rhaenys are played by actors way older than their characters…

Baela a 15 year old is also being played by older a actress.

While they cast actors too old age wise and look wise for Alicent’s kids, they cast age appropriate actors for Rhaenyra’s boys.

Jace’s actor was 17 when he was playing Jace in S1,looked young too whereas, Aemond who is like barely an year older than Jace was played by a 24 year old who looked 30 in the show

Not denying industries double standards but I don’t think HoTD is the best example to show that cuz I think they had their own reasons as to why they specifically cast mature actors for Alicent’s kids alone(and didn’t for Rhaenyra’s /Emma’s sons )

1. Emphasise that Alicent was child bride. She was 15 when she has her first born. Rhaenyra was 18-19.

2. Aegon and Aemond are shown to be sexually perverse characters. Many nude scenes, brothel scenes. So likely wanted older actors for the role. Can’t have barely legal actors do the scenes they had in the show. (They have cast a 17 year old actor for a 15 year old son of Alicent, so I think the above reason is very much the reason why they went with older actors)

3. Its obvious writers are a bit biased and like showing Team Green as this perverted fucked up nasty family. So casting older actors will make them less sympathetic when Rhaenyra’s boys who look like cute angels will induce more emotions out of audience.

What’s the problem? It’s normal. For example, in Indiana Jones Sean Connery plays Henry Jones Sr. and Harrison Ford (Henry Jones Jr.) is only 12 years younger than him.