It's very uncommon for viewers of high-profile shows like the devoted fandom-driven "Game of Thrones" prequel "House of the Dragon" to have differing opinions about an actor's portrayal of a particular character. But because of the enormous response, Lady Alicent Hightower, played by British actor Emily Carey in the HBO series, momentarily deleted her Twitter account.
After participating in a panel discussion for the spinoff at Comic-Con international in July, the 19-year-old actor started a social media uproar. While defending their decision to give their character a past in an effort to humanize her, fans of George R.R. Martin's novels criticized Carey of failing to grasp their villainous position.
"I love social media. I'm 19, so I'm all on social media, and I've been
on social media since I was a kid because I've worked since I was a kid
so I'm very conscious of things . . . any hate that comes in, it's just .
. . it's a person behind a screen. You just have to move on from it,"
Carey told news.com.au.
"But I will say I did delete Twitter [after Comic-Con] because it's just
so loud," she said. "Even when it's good, there's so many and it's so
loud. I love the buzz, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it can be
overwhelming, and that's me being completely transparent."
Take a cue from Tom Holland, who recently discussed deleting Instagram to prioritize his mental health, and remember that taking a break from social media is never a terrible thing. All social media users have a duty to watch out that their thoughts don't cross the line into hate speech. Fortunately, Carey, who has acted in "Wonder Woman," agrees that the supportive remarks helped them get through the trying time.
"Post Comic-Con there was a lot of noise, but what's really lovely is a
lot of fans noticed that I switched off Twitter and have come to me on
other platforms that I use more often and have messaged me making sure
I'm OK," she added. "So I'm definitely feeling the positive vibes from
it now, which is really nice."
It makes sense that devoted "Game of Thrones" fans would want to preserve the most recent spinoff, and the cast has kept this in mind throughout the entire filming process. In the interview, Carey added, "I'm very respectful of the fans in the sense of, we're stepping into their world rather than they are watching our world," Carey said in the interview. "The fans are great. I think, for the most part, we've been welcomed in warmly to this fan base."
