Milly Alcock says ‘House of the Dragon’ higher-up told her she’d get acting coach

House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock is opening up about her bumpy landing in Westeros. 

The Australian actress, who plays the younger version of Rhaenyra Targaryen on the award-winning Game of Thrones prequel, revealed on Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show that an unnamed higher-up informed her on her second day on set that she’d soon be receiving an acting coach. 

“On my second day on House of the Dragon, one of the — I’m not gonna say who, but someone very high up — pulled me aside and was like, ‘Um, we’re gonna get you an acting coach,’” Alcock recalled in her first-ever talk show appearance, whispering the person’s comments as she spoke as if to soften the blow. 

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“No. ‘We’re gonna get you an acting coach?’ Oh no!” A stunned Fallon simply replied as Alcock nodded and agreed. “Did you just freak out and go, ‘Did you just say that?’” 

Alcock didn’t share what she told the higher-up in response to the hiring update, but noted that their comment stung. Entertainment Weekly reached out to HBO for comment.

“It just confirmed everything that I’ve kind of known to be true, [which] is that I’m not very good at my job,” she self-deprecatingly joked. After the audience let out a sympathetic groan, Alcock quickly tried to bring the mood back up, adding, “You know what I mean! I was like, ‘I can’t do this. This is terrible. This is a big mistake.’” 

But Fallon was not standing for any slander toward Alcock on his show. “Oh, I’m so sorry. From the very first episode, you were a fan favorite,” he declared as the crowd rallied behind her. “That guy is wrong. You are unbelievable.”

Turning to the camera as if to address the producer, Fallon jabbed his thumb in Alcock’s direction and added, “Look at her! You’re totally wrong, buddy.” 

The host noted that House of the Dragon won a Golden Globe for Best Drama Series in 2023, so its cast, including Alcock, wasn’t one to be slept on. “I didn’t win it!” Alcock maintained, to which Fallon breezily replied, “Yeah, you did. You won. Your show won.”

Alcock has starred as the younger Rhaenyra across the first two seasons of House of the Dragon. Production on season 3 is still underway, but its showrunner, Ryan Condal, previously told Entertainment Weekly that fans can expect “our biggest season to date, both in terms of ambition and just the practical size, the amount of sets.”

“We’re cresting that narrative parabola here and starting to come down into, if not the endgame, the midpoint and getting into the late Act 2 and moving onto the start of Act 3,” he said at the time. “Anybody that’s read that book knows that the narrative gets bigger and grimmer as it goes along, and the show has to match that ambition as best it possibly can.”

Watch Alcock talk about House of the Dragon in the clip above.