House of the Dragon star accused of ‘forcing lesbianism’ on their character-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

A House of the Dragon star was accused of ‘pushing her lesbianism’ on her character (Picture: HBO)

A House of the Dragon star has spoken about being subjected to homophobic hate after being accused of ‘pushing her lesbianism’ on her character.

In the first season of the Game of Thrones prequel series, Emily Carey played the young Alicent Hightower, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen’s childhood companion and best friend.

The actress, 21, previously spoke about being driven off social media by trolls unhappy with comments she made about ‘humanising’ her character, whom many deemed to be a villain ahead of its premiere.

She’s now said she also faced intense backlash speaking about the sexuality of the fictional character.

Aged 17, Emily played Alicent as she navigated friendship, palace politics, and later pregnancy.

During the launch she and Milly Alcock, who played a young Rhaenyra, spoke about the ‘romantic subtext’ between their characters.

Emily Carey played Alicent Hightower in the first season of the Game of Thrones prequel series (Picture: HBO)

At the time she said that in rehearsals it felt like they were ‘going to kiss’.

However, she’s now revealed the comments saw her face ‘borderline homophobic hate’ from fans of the franchise who claimed she weaved her own sexuality into Alicent’s storyline.

‘As a queer person, I received a huge amount of borderline homophobic hate on the internet,’ she recalled.

‘I had a lot of comments that I’d forced my lesbianism on these characters, which is just absurd, in my opinion.

The actress previously spoke about being forced off social media due to trolling (Picture: Nils Jorgensen/REX/Shutterstock)

‘All we said was that if you wanted to see this potential spark between them, you could.’

She continued: ‘I mean, it wasn’t something we were ever consciously playing. It wasn’t something where we thought, “Hey, let’s throw this in. This will be fun.” It was just something that we spoke about, as we felt this sort of palpable tension between the two characters.’

The actress went on to tell The Independent how the backlash to her comments was ‘a lot to take on’ and the claims about forcing her sexuality on Alicent were ‘absurd’.

The show also stars Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith (Picture: Ollie Upton/HBO via AP)

Emily said that although she loved hearing from fans of the show and their opinions on the characters, she had ‘stopped listening’ after this experience.

After five episodes, Emily and Milly departed the series, with Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy stepping in to play the adult versions of their characters.

The highly anticipated second season of House of the Dragon hits screens this month and will chart the devastating Targaryen civil war, known among fans as the Dance of the Dragons.

The conflict will see the citizens and nobles of Westeros side with who they want to see take the Iron Throne, with their options being Queen Rhaenyra I Targaryen and the young King Aegon II Targaryen.

House of the Dragon season 2 is streaming from June 17 on Sky and NOW.

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