House of the Dragon star Emily Carey has admitted she was “scared” before her sex scene with Paddy Considine because of the age difference between the actors.

In the show, 19-year-old Carey plays Alicent Hightower, the young bride of Viserys Targaryen who is played by the 47-year-old Considine.

Carey was talking to Newsweek about approaching the intimate scenes: “It scared me, because at that point 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]. All I saw was, you know, a 47-year-old man and me. I was a bit concerned.”

Emily Carey with Paddy Considine in House of the Dragon. (Sky/HBO)

Carey also praised the use of an intimacy coordinator on the show: “Having that outlet of the intimacy coordinator, to be able to talk everything through and not be shunned, or not feel awkward… Yeah, it was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be.”

The scene in question occurs in House of the Dragon’s fourth episode where Carey’s character takes part in joyless sex with the King.

The same episode features scenes of incest between Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen and Milly Alcock’s Rhaenyra who are uncle and niece.

Milly Alcock and Matt Smith in House of the Dragon. (Sky/HBO)
Alcock talked about filming the scene to the New York Post: “[Smith and I] were just kind of mates. So, it was quite comfortable. We had an intimacy coordinator, and we worked with her through the rehearsal process and blocked it out months before.”

Carey also discussed her reaction to watching Game of Thrones before starting work on the prequel: “In the pre-production period I sat down to try and watch [Game of Thrones] and of course the first season, even just the first episode of Thrones, there’s a lot of violence upon women. There’s a lot of violent sex and it made me nervous. I was like: ‘Oh God, what am I gonna have to do in this show?’”