The House of the Beast is back with a bang on Sunday, June 21, with a scene that will undoubtedly have everyone talking.
During a heated exchange with her mother, Alicent Hightower (played by Olivia Cooke), during the season 3 premiere, Ewan MitchellThe prince’s lieutenant, Aemond Targaryen, shocked onlookers – and his mother – by kissing him on the lips.
According to Mitchell, 29, “it makes you want to throw up in your mouth a little bit.”
“Yes, it’s scary. But also, I just saw a great challenge and an opportunity to show Aemond in a new way,” said the British actor. People in an interview published on Sunday.
“It’s a really hard pill to swallow, isn’t it, kissing your mother on the lips, especially that way,” he explained. “I mean, Aemond, when he was growing up, never felt loved by his mother and his close family, and a child needs that unconditional love to have a balanced view of himself. And Aemond, because he never had that, has a twisted view and a strange way of showing love.”
“I think what you see in that scene in episode 1 is that love that’s skewed,” he added.
Cooke said that it was difficult to record this place.
“I think it was weird for both of us,” the actor said. “There was this Oedipal subtext – Alicent didn’t know. And I think it’s shocking.”
There is also the small matter of Aemond becoming something of a psychopath. After all, he burned his brother Aegon (played by Tom Glynn-Carney) death episode in season 2.
Cooke, 32, said of Alicent, kissing “is really dangerous, because he is a very dangerous person.”
“He knows that one wrong facial expression, thought to be rejected, will cost him his life.” So he tries to tread carefully, but I think he is confused at the time,” he said.
Despite kissing his on-screen mother, Mitchell praised his co-star.
“Working with Liv Cooke in just that scene … it’s a master class to work with Liv Cooke in any scene. Yeah, she’s the real deal,” he gushes.
Yes, fans of Drago’s Housesand its predecessor, Game of Thronesthey do not know the shocking scenes of sleeping with relatives. Aemond’s brother Aegon is, after all, married to his sister, Helaena (Pia Saban). Season 1 also featured an illicit romance between Rhaenyra Targaryen (played by Milly Alcock again Emma D’Arcy) and his paternal uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith).
The House of the Beast Season 3 airs Sundays on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Max.
