House Of The Dragon's Milly Alcock Has A Surprising Take On That Intimate Scene With Her Uncle

Spoilers for Season 1 Episode 4 of "House of the Dragon" ahead.

If that scene from the most recent episode of "House of the Dragon" grossed you out, you're not alone — but the actors involved were just fine with it.

In the fourth episode of this brand new hit "Game of Thrones" spin-off from HBO, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen — currently played by Milly Alcock — ends up exploring the underbelly of King's Landing with her troublemaking uncle Daemon (Matt Smith), beyond the walls of the Red Keep she's been accustomed to up until this point. After taking in a crude show about the Targaryen line of succession (which paints Rhaenyra in a pretty unflattering light) and several drinks, the two abscond to a brothel together, which... gets pretty weird pretty quickly.

Daemon escorts his niece through the crowded establishment, taking in scenes of people in various compromising positions, before assuming one himself: a passionate kiss with his niece. Rhaenyra responds, however, and the two really start to go at it before Daemon demurs — and whether that's because he just realized it's wrong to try and boff his niece or because he's having "performance issues," which he's dealt with in previous episodes. This scene may have been pretty uncomfortable to watch on multiple levels, but according to Alcock, it was kind of a breeze to actually film.

According to The New York Post (and also as reported by The AV Club), Alcock said the scene was surprisingly routine to shoot, thanks to coordinators behind the scenes as well as her solid off-screen relationship with Smith, an industry veteran who's appeared in everything from "Doctor Who" to "Morbius."

As Alcock told the Post, "[Smith and I] were just kind of mates. So, it was quite comfortable. We had an intimacy coordinator, and we worked with her through the rehearsal process and blocked it out months before."

That said, there was one major surprise: the brothel itself. "Clare Kilner, our director, made sure that we hadn't seen any of the brothel stuff until we were shooting," Alcock continued. "So, that was our first time walking through the brothel, and he's guiding her through the room with all of these other bodies. So, that was quite shocking. You're like, 'This is kind of weird and silly.' There were extras who we had just met who were like, 69-ing for 12 hours. It's pretty gnarly. We felt pretty overdressed, because everyone else was nude."

Clearly, Alcock and Smith were put as at ease as possible during this tricky scene... even with the inherent weirdness of their surroundings during this pivotal moment.

As the predecessor to "House of the Dragon," HBO's juggernaut "Game of Thrones" drew plenty of controversy due to its often brutal depictions of sexual violence against women — and it seems that "House of the Dragon" may be taking a different approach, particularly in Episode 4. When Rhaenyra is left high and dry after her encounter with Daemon, she returns home only to seduce Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel), taking complete control in the encounter and savoring every minute of it.

Without outright sexual violence, "House of the Dragon" also shows the other side of the coin in this episode in Alicent Hightower (currently played by Emily Carey), the second wife and queen to Rhaenyra's father King Viserys I (Paddy Considine). Expected to be available any time the king requests, Alicent is awoken in the middle of the night for one of his visits and is depicted as emotionless and vacant during the act itself; though it's not a violent scene, it's an unsettling portrayal of what it looks like to, as a woman in a medieval era, forego your personal boundaries and pleasure as part of a patriarchal structure like an absolute monarchy.

In any case, it does seem like the actors on set for "House of the Dragon" are well-protected behind the scenes, no matter how controversial those scenes are.