**HASAN HEJAZI** top, **MISCREANTS** gloves, **BVLGARI** earrings and necklace.

Cowboy boots and a denim skirt was Australian actor Milly Alcock’s first stage ensemble. The play in question? Little Red Rocking Hood at her local church’s theater stage, her first experience feeling like an utter rockstar. Storytelling had become her refuge, she tells me, after continuously pressing rewind on a stolen Blockbuster DVD of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The spotlight that shone over her as a six year old on the local church theater stage is an adrenaline rush she’s chased ever since.

A slightly sunburnt Alcock is calling in on a Sunday from her London flat, set to head off to Greece for holiday. On the heels of finishing filming for HBO Max’s House of the Dragon, the prequel series for smash hit, Game of Thrones, where Alcock plays young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, she shares, “It’s kind of overwhelming at times because I will be just walking down the street, and I’ll get a pang of like, ‘I get to do this.’ And I’ll get teary-eyed.”

She jokes that Game of Thrones names are quite a mouthful, loaded with syllables that the
actors themselves stumble on. Alcock reflects that the greatest takeaway she learned while on the set of House of the Dragon was how she needed to operate to be happy. “I was given the gift of learning by watching such amazing actors,” she shares, “but I also spent so much time alone. I was in a different country alone during lockdown. I was given the opportunity for the lack of a better word that I didn’t want to fuck up. Because I didn’t know if an opportunity like this would ever come again.” She continues, “Learning how to process those feelings was the most valuable thing, because I tried to escape it, fight it, and then I made peace with it. I came out of the other end knowing that when I do a big job, I know in my next job what to do to be happy and how to function.”

**GIVENCHY** dress and **BVLGARI** necklace.

On the surface, Reddit forums and GoT fans themselves are skeptical about House of the Dragon following the contentious GoT conclusion. Alcock rebuts, saying that House of the Dragon adds a layered approach to characters that were briefly touched upon in Game of Thrones. “I think Rhaenyra is a three-dimensional character who stands on her own two feet,” she elaborates, “but her strength acts as a mask since she is not allowed to access her vulnerability. She feels that if she accesses it, it will unleash this voice of internalized misogyny that ‘She’s an emotional young woman, she cannot be the heir.’ It takes away from her being as capable.”

Unlike the confidence expressed in her Little Red Rocking Hood starting point, Alcock’s first day on the set of House of the Dragon was spent navigating a web of nervousness. “I couldn’t stop shaking,” she admits, “I was mortified. I have only done Australian TV, which is substantially different from anything of this world. I remember it was a scene at the end of the first episode. I remember going for action and thinking, ‘This is the first take that is going to change your life.’ I was so anxious and tense. I went out for a cigarette and calmed down. You get so excited to work and your body physically reacts, and that inhibits you from doing your job because you want to be relaxed and not skittish.” She laughs and adds, “At least I didn’t get fired.”

**CHLOÉ** coat, **BVLGARI** bracelet, and **CAROLINA HERRERA** mini bag.

Alcock joyfully talks about the mini parties she shared with her London friends when her world was reduced to the parameters of her neighborhood. They’d gather around a flimsy projector to watch movies together, sharing beers and wiping dinner plates clean. To her, London played the host city of her own self-discovery. On cities, Alcock speaks of their power to influence one’s identity, and reckons that with each move to a new one, a new character takes shape in her mind.

Despite the openness to change, as Alcock grows older, she holds dear the words that her mother told her during the height of preteen angst: ‘Be nice to Milly, I like her.’ The phrase still serves as her residual guide, and in times of anguish or strained willpower, she reaches for it with purpose. As for any nerves on set? She relishes slowness. “I give myself time to think,” she says. “I find it hard to know when to ask for help. I’m surrounded by so many different people of different ages on set. I was listening to an A24 podcast, and Mike Mills was describing a film set as a ‘crew of misfit pirates.’ Everyone has got their own little story and we’re all on this ship together. They’re all a bit wacky and a bit weird, all a bit lost, and this passion defines them together.”

**ZILVER** coat, **ARIES x FILA** asymmetric monokini, **TIMOTHY HAN / EDITION** flared pants, **ESSĒN** sandals, **BVLGARI** earrings and bracelet.

Alcock is of course an actor, but she adores photography, which she picked up during lockdown. Her Instagram features an image of Parisian children playing in the streets, something that spoke to her definition of beauty. “I think as humans we are inherently drawn to beauty,” she considers. “Beauty is completely subjective. Some people might see the photo of the kids in Paris and say, ‘Oh the composition is wrong—it’s a bit slanted.’ I think the beauty is in the mistakes because it’s alive. The ability to control an image and evoke a certain feeling is what drew it to me. And not always searching for the aesthetic, but a movement and a motive of the person in front of the lens that gets you interested.”

Above all, Alcock is a dreamer. From the cowboy boots strutting the theater stage to the tightly wound royal garments of Princess Rhaenyra, she gravitates toward an innovative performance. And somewhere between now and future endeavors, she would like to embark on a play.“I think it would be something that would help me hone my skills as an actor,” she shares, “and I think it would make me feel more legitimized, if that makes sense. To have that experience on stage that happens just once in that moment, and it’s such a shared experience with the audience.” Rest assured, that performance is going to glow.