House of the Dragon's Fabien Frankel Spent 7 Months Preparing For Rhaenyra And Criston Cole Scene

gamerant.com:

House of the Dragon's Fabien Frankel has spoken out about his method for preparing for one of the central interactions between Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and his character, Ser Criston Cole.

Ser Criston and Rhaenyra spent the first half of House of the Dragon season 1 growing ever-closer. The Princess personally chose him as one of the Kingsguard, an order of seven sworn to guard the King and Royal Family to the best of their abilities. But the Kingsguard must swear an oath: much like the Night's Watch, they will take no lands and father no heirs, choosing a life of celibacy. In House of the Dragon episode 4, however, Rhaenyra and Ser Criston's flirtations come to a head and the two end up having sex, which ends up causing no end of trouble for everyone.

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Appearing on Entertainment Weekly's West of Westeros podcast, Frankel discussed the preparations he went through for the scene, which he thought about for seven months. Frankel said of the scene, “The big thing for me was about it not feeling like another gratuitous, sweat-glistening-off-their-back sex scene, 'cause it's just not like that. Anyone who's ever had sex will tell you sex ain't that beautiful.” This was the ethos he, Alcock, and director Clare Kilner decided to embrace when shooting the scene.

For instance, the scene features the removal of Ser Criston's armor as a focal point. Not only was it symbolic of Ser Criston breaking his vows, it added an extra layer of realistic tension to the scene as Rhaenyra helped him out of the cumbersome outfit. As Frankel says, «I just remember back and forth texts, back and forth phone calls, back and forth meetings between Clare, myself, Milly, and our intimacy