Olivia Cooke left co-star ‘stricken with anxiety’ due to shocking pubic hair

Olivia Cooke has revealed how horrified her House of the Dragon co-star was by the sight of pubic hair after a harmless prank descended into chaos.

Last night on BBC’s The Claudia Winkleman Show, the actress was on the sofa alongside Ralph Fiennes, Anna Faris and Michelle de Swarte.

Her Game of Thrones prequel series, in which she plays the cunning Alicent Hightower, is due to return this summer for the highly anticipated season 3, where the various factions of House Targaryen will keep fighting for control of the Iron Throne.

When the conversation turned to the epic fantasy drama, Claudia, 54, mentioned how Olivia, 32, is a fan of pranking people on set.

‘Well, I did it once, and then I was scared that I’d MeTooed myself, so I then didn’t do it again,’ The Girlfriend star responded, prompting shocked gasps from the studio audience.

‘But I had to do a sex scene where my scene partner was underneath my skirts.

You can imagine what was happening.’
Olivia was referring to a particular scene in season two of House of the Dragon, when it’s revealed that Alicent and the knight Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) are now in a sexual relationship.

‘We have to wear these sort of padded, sticky jock straps for, you know, 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,”’ she recalled.

The House Bunny star Anna seemed impressed, declaring: ‘That’s power.’
Olivia then continued: ‘It looks incredible.

I stuck it on, and the reaction that my cast mate had, Fabien – I was a bit alarmed.

I was like, like: “Surely you’ve seen pubes before?”
‘But he leapt to the other side of the room.

He was so shocked and disgusted, and he thought it was real.

I was like: “Oh no, what have I done?

What have I done?

I thought this was going to be funny.” But I think he was really stricken with anxiety from that experience.’
Despite Fabien’s distraught reaction, Michelle also agreed that she was all for Olivia’s prank, stating: ‘Good on you, man, bring back pubes.’
‘I’m dying…this story 😭😭😭,’ Kristina added.

It was recently confirmed that House of the Dragon will run for four seasons, meaning we’re currently at the halfway point of the entire series.

The teaser for season three, which came out in February this year, reveals the cutthroat Battle of the Gullet, which is one of the most devastating naval battles in the history of Westeros.

The Claudia Winkleman Show airs on Friday nights on BBC One and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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