House of the DragonWhile the most memorable moments of tend to be flashy, (Literally) Intenseand was full of painful violence. In last week’s episodebut Episode 5, “Regent,” aired last night.has inspired one of the strongest reactions in the show’s history — and one of the quietest. In a new interview, “Regent” director Claire Kilner talks about how it came about.
We’ve seen some impressive choices made with surprising restraint. House of the DragonAnother big example from season 2 is At the premiereher reaction when Helena witnesses the brutal beheading of her infant son and runs emotionlessly through the Red Keep to deliver the news, but it is different from Alicent’s reaction in “The Regent” when the Small Council chooses her son Aemond to rule in place of the gravely injured King Aegon.
This is a double whammy, because not only did they push aside the much more experienced Alicent primarily because she’s a woman, know She also correctly suspects that Aemond is responsible for Aegon returning from the battle in such a bad condition.
In this scene, instead of focusing on the smugness of the newly promoted Aemond as he begins issuing orders, Kilner moves the camera closer to Alicent’s face, and as the sounds in the room around her quieten, we see her physical reactions to what’s just happened — rapid breathing, rapid heartbeat — and Olivia Cooke’s carefully modulated facial expressions show a woman with a mixture of emotions: anger, contempt, humiliation and panic. She’s terrified of what this might mean for the future.
Talk to RapKilner explained why he held back on the shot because of Cooke’s captivating performance: “For every scene, I do a lot of prep beforehand – breaking it down and looking at the characters – but I also get on set with my cinematographer and discuss how we would shoot it if we only had one long shot,” the director said. “I thought, ‘This is all Alicent. We could shoot this whole scene with Alicent.’ And also because Olivia Cooke carries it all so quietly. There’s so much going on behind those eyes.”
Kilner explained that she and her team knew it was the right choice: “Sometimes you don’t know if the studio or people are going to forgive you for it. We were all on board with it. But it just became so obvious that there was this huge betrayal going on,” she said.
New Episodes House of the Dragon It will be available on HBO and Max on Sundays.
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