Featured Image Credit: HBO.
Topics: News, TV and Film, House of the Dragon
Charisa Bossinakis
House of the Dragon’s intimacy coach has spilled on the most challenging scenes to shoot for the racy Games of Thrones prequel.
While you might not know the name Miriam Lucia, she’s currently one of the industry’s most sought-after intimacy coaches and has worked with some of the hottest actors right now, including Rosamund Pike, Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan.
The intimacy coach recently sat down with Deadline to speak of her experience working on the hugely popular fantasy HBO show.
Lucia told the outlet that before production began, she was invited to lengthy discussions and read-throughs so actors knew what was expected of them while shooting intimate scenes.
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She also wanted to ensure actors were never thrown off guard during shooting.
As Games of Thrones acquired a reputation for shooting particularly graphic scenes with actors feeling mounting pressure, Lucia said that she intended to make House of the Dragon a safe space.
She worked closely with 18-year-old Emily Carey, who plays young Alicent Hightower, as she had a sex scene with Paddy Considine (King Viserys Targaryen), who is 31 years her senior.
She added: “Emily was only 18 when we did that scene [in which her character is made to have sex with her much older husband]. It was also about talking Paddy through the whole thing, and checking that he was okay. He has a child Emily’s age after all.
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“She basically said she was very frightened ahead of that scene, and that without an intimacy coordinator she wouldn’t have known how to handle it.”
Lucia also worked with Milly Alcock (young Rhaenyra Targaryen) as she too shot intimate scenes with Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Targaryen and is 17 years older than Alcock.
Although Alcock and Carey weren’t underage, she admits that many ‘young women haven’t done scenes like this before’.
Lucia also explained that post-MeToo movement there’s been a cultural shift in the industry, making her job more important than ever.
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She said: “There was a lot of discussion with director Clare Kilner about the House Of The Dragon episode Emily was anxious about. There was a lot of preparation before shoot day. In the past, a director would say in the moment, ‘yeah, you know what, actually, I think it’s better if she takes her shirt off now’, or, ‘actually, just go for it guys, see what happens’. You can’t do that anymore."