House of the Dragon: Teen star Emily Carey deleted Twitter following deluge of criticism

Actor faced backlash for her sympathetic portrayal of a series archvillain

Emily Carey has revealed she deleted her social media account after a recent press appearance for House of the Dragon, the highly anticipated Game of Thrones spin-off.

The 19-year-old British actor plays a young Alicent Hightower on the HBO series, which premiered on Sunday (21 August). In the first episode, Alicent appears as a sympathetic friend, but readers of George RR Martin’s beloved novels have been criticising her understanding of the character.

*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*

The backlash started in July at Comic Con in San Diego, where Carey appeared on a panel to discuss House of the Dragon. She told fans that she’d invented a backstory for Alicent in order to humanise the scheming youngster. Book fans, who know she evolves into a villain, have accused her of misunderstanding Allicent by attempting to justify her evolution.

In an interview with News Corp Australia, Carey – a self-described social media lover – said the criticism was so bad that she deleted her Twitter account.

“I will say I did delete Twitter because it’s just so loud. Even when it’s good, there’s so many and it’s so loud”, she told the outlet.

“I love the buzz, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes it can be overwhelming, and that’s me being completely transparent.”

Immediately following her remarks at Comic-Con, Carey wrote in a now-deleted post: “I stand by what I said in the panel. Alicent is not the villain, folks. When we meet her she’s a child, a product of the patriarchy. Just you wait and see. Maybe you’ll sympathise.”

But reflecting on the incident now, Carey added: “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.”

Carey will eventually be replaced by actor Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent as an adult in future episodes of House of the Dragon.

The second instalment will air next Sunday (28 August). You can read The Independent’s review of the series here.