Even in Westeros, mischief finds its way onto set. Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower) revealed on Claudia Winkleman’s show that she once shocked her House of the Dragon co‑star Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole) during a sex scene by wearing an oversized, fiery‑red merkin — a theatrical wig for intimate areas — as part of her costume.
Quick read
Olivia Cooke requested a giant red merkin for a scene.
Fabien Frankel was horrified, thinking it was real.
Cooke admitted she wanted the prank to be funny
The prank that horrified Fabien Frankel
Cooke began by explaining the awkward logistics of filming intimate scenes, noting that protective gear is required: She said, “I had to do a sex scene where my scene partner was underneath my skirts. You can imagine what was happening and dominoes. Um, because you have to wear these, you know, these strap‑ons. These strap‑ons. We have these stickers. We have to wear these sort of like padded sticky jock straps for, you know, obvious reasons.”
To break the tension, she decided to make a bold request to the costume team: Cooke recalled, “And I said, ‘Can you make me the biggest, hairiest mirkin? And I want the color to be fiery red to match my hair.’ And that’s power. And it looks incredible. It looks incredible.”
But when she revealed the prank to her co‑star, his reaction was far from amused: She admitted, “And you know, I stuck it on and the reaction that my castmate had, Fabien, which I was a bit alarmed. But I was like, like surely you’ve seen like hair pub pubes before. Um, but he leapt to the other side of the room and he was so shocked and disgusted and he thought it was real and I was like, ‘Oh no, what have I done? What have I done? What have I done?’ I thought this was going to be funny, but he was like I think he was really stricken with anxiety from that experience.”
Behind‑the‑scenes humor
The anecdote highlights the unpredictable humor that often surfaces during filming. While House of the Dragon thrives on political intrigue and brutal battles, its cast clearly finds ways to break the tension. Cooke’s prank, though alarming for Frankel, has since become a memorable behind‑the‑scenes story, showing how actors cope with the awkwardness of intimate scenes.