I feared sex scene with man 30 years older, says House of the Dragon actress

A TEENAGE actress in the Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon has revealed she felt “incredibly scared” about filming sex scenes with a co-star 30 years her senior.

Emily Carey was 17 when she was handed the scripts containing sex scenes with Paddy Considine, 47.

The British actress, who plays the nubile young queen Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon, has two intimate scenes with Considine’s King Viserys Targaryen in the fourth episode. One features the queen bathing the king and submitting to sex out of obligation. “It scared me, because I still hadn’t met Paddy, I didn’t know how much of a joy he was and how easy he was going to make [the scene],” she told Newsweek.

“All I saw was, you know, a 47-yearold man and me. I was a bit concerned.”

But Carey, now 19, said intimacy coordinators on set put her at ease and helped her feel “empowered”.

“I remember being so incredibly scared, so nervous,” she told the US cable channel in a separate interview.

“I talked about my concerns [with the intimacy co-ordinator], and she brought Paddy into the conversation. Immediately, I was just so reassured.”

Not all Game of Thrones actors have welcomed the use of intimacy co-ordinators on set. Sean Bean, who played Ned Stark in the first series, recently said they “spoil the spontaneity”.

He told The Times that “the natural way lovers behave would be ruined” if you had “somebody saying: ‘Do this, put your hands there, while you touch’.”