It turns out that even queens are nervous around Tom Cruise.
House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke, who plays Queen Alicent Hightower in the hit HBO fantasy drama, recalled the time she “blacked out” meeting Cruise, 61, on the set of her film, Ready Player One.
On the Tuesday, June 4, episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Cooke said the movie’s director, Steven Spielberg, often had his A-list friends drop by the set — including George Lucas and Tom Cruise.
“There was a celebrity guest every single day. You’ve got Steven Spielberg, who I’ve got to interact with every single day — again, mortified, because I’m like, ‘Oh god, don’t look at me,’” the actress explained.
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One day, Cooke, 30, said she heard “whispers around the cast” that Cruise — who Spielberg directed in Minority Report and War of the Worlds — was to visit the set.
Cooke said she was wearing a velour “tight tracksuit that was all velcro” and had various cameras and lights attached to her.
“I was talking to my friend and I see Tom Cruise just walk across the stage, and I was like [trying to hide],” she said. “And then I hear Steven go, ‘Olivia, come meet my good friend, Tom Cruise.’”
“I blacked out,” she continued. “I completely blacked out. But apparently, my friend ran to the top of the stage to watch this interaction. Apparently, I bowed like a servant. Like, boobs to knee. And then [I] shook his hand and came to.”
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Host Stephen Colbert asked Cooke if there was chemistry between them, to which she quipped, “I think it was void of chemistry.”
Cooke reprises her role as Alicent Hightower in season 2 of House of the Dragon, which premieres Sunday, June 16, on HBO.
As the fight for the Iron Throne between Alicent’s son, King Aegon II (played by Tom Glynn-Carney), and her former BFF, Rhanerya Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) heats up, Cooke teased that viewers can expect “bloodshed, legacy, power, sexuality, and dragons, obviously” this season.
Speaking to Us Weekly at the House of the Dragon season 2 New York City premiere on Monday, June 3, Cooke’s fellow castmembers revealed whether they are Team Green (representative of Aegon and House Hightower) or Team Black (the colors of the Targaryen clan).
“Well, I’m a feminist, so I’d quite like to see a woman in power, so I think the Blacks,” said Tom Glynn-Carney, going against his character’s family. “However, that’s not the film that we’re playing right now. We’re playing against Black.”
Meanwhile, Ewan Mitchell, who plays Alicent’s other son, Prince Aemond Targaryen, said, “I’m Team Green through and through.”
