Three years following the divisive conclusion of Game of Thrones (GOT), the prequel House of the Dragon (HOD) signalled a return to form for Westeros-set stories. The second season of HOD is all set to premiere on June 16. Season 2 promotion is already underway, with actors Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s most recent digital issue. However, they are still affected by an enormously popular TikTok moment that occurred during their Season 1 press tour.
In case you forgot, in 2022, Cooke, who portrays the old version of Queen Alicent Hightower, was promoting House of the Dragon alongside Emma D’Arcy, who plays the elder version of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen.
One of the promotional concepts had the two actresses randomly selecting questions from a bowl and asking them to each other. Cooke’s question read, “What’s your drink of choice?” In response, D’Arcy said, “Negroni Sbagliato with prosecco in it.”
Cooke reacted with a full Manchester UK accent, “Stunnin!” indicating that she felt the drink choice was rather extravagant. Her “Stunning!” comment went viral and became a meme on social media sites like TikTok.
In a recent interview with EW, Cooke admits, “I did hate it [the meme] for a very long time.” She explained: “I was in the pub. A woman opened the door for me and she said with a thick Spanish accent, ‘Stunnin’!’ I was just like, ‘Oh my God. Over a decade’s worth of work reduced to a single word in my lexicon.”
D’Arcy approaches the situation with a zen attitude, stating that she doesn’t have any profound insights to offer because it’s challenging to determine the appropriate response when you suddenly become a meme.
Cooke further explained the circumstances leading to the meme-worthy moment. She mentioned that they were placed in a room and were extremely jet-lagged, simply trying to lighten the mood and amuse each other.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to it.” According to ComicBook.com, there will be a promotional video, title sequence, or scene featuring Alicent and Rhaenyra standing on a life-size chess board.
Cooke and D’Arcy, being TikTok-savvy, realised they were stepping into a potential meme zone, specifically recalling the popular Harry Potter chess scene meme.
Cooke expressed that when they stepped onto the chessboard and saw it, they thought, “Well, this is the end.”
As per them, it consumed their thoughts the entire time. They felt it was “torture” and they simply couldn’t go through with it.
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