House of the Dragon star was 'sad' 8 months of work was 'reduced to' viral TikTok video
Topics: Film and TV, House Of The Dragon, Celebrity
Ben Thompson
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@streamonmax / HBO Max
Topics: Film and TV, House Of The Dragon, Celebrity
Becoming a meme isn't all it's cracked up to be... well, according to one of the stars from House of the Dragon.
Going viral for saying something funny is something celebritiaes have learned to take in their stride.
But everybody has their limits.
Case in point, Olivia Cooke from House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones.
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Back in 2022, Cooke and co-star Emma D'Arcy were paired up to film a TikTok for HBO to promote the upcoming show.
The video, filmed at San Diego Comic Con, saw the two British actors asking each other questions on camera.
Cooke started off the questions with "What's your drink of choice?"
D'Arcy, who uses they/them pronouns, responded: "A Negroni, sbagliato," before leaning into the mic and adding: "With Prosecco in it."
Looking impressed, Cooke replied: "Ooh, stunning," with her Manchester accent shining through, before revealing her favorite drink was a gin martini because it 'gets her really p*ssed'.
And just like that, a meme was born.
The clip went everywhere and became a viral sound on TikTok, as people did their best attempts to lip sync to the actors. Here it is if you fancy refreshing your memories:
The two acknowledged that they'd gone viral, with D'Arcy telling the New York Times: "I keep thinking I should tell my mom that I've become a meme in the hope that she'll be happy for me, but I'd have to explain what a meme is, and I've decided it's too much effort."
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, however, Cooke reveals she wasn't all too happy with her meme status.
Her reasoning?
She felt it overshadowed her and D'Arcy's work in House of the Dragon.
In the interview, which came ahead of the show's season two premiere, Cooke insisted that she's more aware on the press tour this time around - and she had refused outright to do any TikToks.
She said: "It's just sad how you work for eight months and it f**king gets reduced to a f**king TikTok, and that makes me sad. We were just trying to make each other laugh.
"There's no rhyme or reason to it. I did hate it for a very long time. I was in the pub, a woman opened the door for me, and she said with a thick Spanish accent: ‘Stunnin'!'
"I was just like, 'Oh my God. Over a decade's worth of work reduced to a single word in my lexicon'."
D'Arcy's reaction was also covered in the Entertainment Weekly story, with them saying: "I don't have anything illuminating to say on it because it's very hard to know how to react when you become a meme."
If that quote doesn't sum up the 21st century, I don't know what does.