House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke explains why she left co-star ‘completely disgusted’ during oral sex scene

Filming an X-rated scene is never easy for anybody, so spare a thought for House of the Dragon actor Olivia Cooke who thought a prank might liven things up.

Cooke, who plays Alicent Hightower in the smash-hit HBO series, revealed how her funny idea went badly wrong.

She shared how her co-star, Fabien Frankel, who plays Ser Criston Cole in the show, was left 'disgusted' after he fell for her plot.

Anybody who's seen the show, which is set decades before Game of Thrones, will know that there's a lot of spicy scenes involved, so it's probably best avoided if you're easily offended.

Cooke recalled how she was getting ready to film one such saucy scene with Frankel, when she asked the costume department for some help to trick him.

Olivia Cooke played a prank on a co-star but it didn't go to plan (HBO)

"I had to do a scene where my scene partner was underneath my skirts. You can imagine what was happening," she teased during an appearance on The Claudia Winkleman Show on BBC One earlier this year.

Many actors have intimacy coordinators, as well as wearing strategically placed pieces of fabric to protect their modesty and to ensure not too much is seen on camera - or so their co-star doesn't get an eyeful.

Cooke continued: "You have to wear these padded, sticky jock straps for obvious reasons. And I said, Can you make me the biggest, hairiest merkin? And I want the colour to be fiery red to match my hair."

In case you're not familiar with a merkin, it's effectively a wig for your bits that originated in the 15th Century. You're welcome.

The costume department was seemingly game for her wild idea, according to a delighted Cooke: "It looked incredible, and I stuck it on, and the reaction that my castmate Fabien had, I was a bit alarmed."

She added: "I was like, 'Surely you've seen pubic hair before?', but he leapt to the other side of the room!"

It turns out, her merkin was a little too convincing, and when poor Fabien went under her skirts, he thought she'd forgotten to cover herself up.

"He was so shocked and disgusted, and he thought it was real," she added, before confessing: "I was like 'Oh no, what have I done!' I thought it was going to be funny, but he was really stricken with anxiety from that experience."

Whoops.

Olivia teamed up with the costume department for the prank but her colleague didn't react how she thought (BBC)

One of Cooke's other colleagues, Gayle Rankin, who plays Alys Rivers, opened up about how some of the strangest or most disturbing scenes in the show are actually very funny to film.

"It was fun and funny. It’s like those scenes can sometimes be really intense, but they’re also like ultimately stunt scenes in some ways," she told Decider.

"So I think we all just like try to be really respectful and professional and also like quite keep it pretty lighthearted, you know?" But merkin pranks are optional.

Will there be a House of the Dragon season 4?

HBO officially renewed House of the Dragon for a fourth season in November 2025.

Showrunner Ryan Condal said he plans for it to be the final instalment of the spin-off.

"I can't speak for everybody else involved with the show… But yes, that is very much my plan," he told Entertainment Weekly back in May.

House of the Dragon season four is expected to be released in 2028.

"It's the fourth season — the end, the final act — in a story we've been waiting to tell for many years," Condal revealed to Gold Derby in June. "We're all really excited."