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Olivia Cooke stars as Alicent Hightower in HBO's 'House of the Dragon'
House of the Dragon star Olivia Cooke has deactivated her Instagram account amid a wave of body shaming and personal attacks directed at her in the lead up the Season 3 premiere of the Game of Thrones prequel.
Olivia Cooke, the 32-year-old actress who plays Alicent Hightower, one of the main roles in the HBO series House of the Dragon, has previously been open about the abuse she’s received on social media, previously described comments from some fans as “horrible,” saying it makes her angry that cast members are expected to absorb hostility from strangers who want to say “the most hateful things.”
Olivia Cooke deactivated her Instagram account amid abuse from fans and a “distortion of her body image”
Fans noticed the deactivation shortly before the Season 3 premiere on June 22 and connected it to the comments she had previously made about the treatment directed at the cast.
“I was sick of seeing 21-year-old looksmaxxers being like: ‘If you follow a program, this is what you can do,’ and it’s a side-by-side picture of him at 14, going through puberty, and him now, saying, ‘Look at the transformation,'” she told The Guardian of the decision. “It’s a lot. It’s very navel-gazy, and it distorts your mental image of your body and your self. And I think that has trickled into our industry, as well.”
Olivia Cooke has deactivated her Instagram account after previously speaking about the hate she and other cast members have received for months.
A reminder to be kind to the cast, actors are not their characters, and they are not the ones writing the scripts. pic.twitter.com/yYKHG6Azp1
— Targaryen Loyalist (@Targ_Loyalist) May 1, 2026
“Some of the fans have been f—— horrible to our cast. It makes me really angry that we’re then supposed to just bow down and [pay] obeisance to these people that only want to say the most debased, hate-filled things,” Cooke told The Hollywood Reporter last year.
“It can be quite vitriolic at times. I don’t want this to come across as ‘Woe is me’, because I’m very grateful for the job, but to field insults when you’re just walking down the street… They want a picture with you, then afterwards, they’ll say, ‘I f—— hate your character, by the way,’ or, ‘Your character’s a —–.’
Alicent looks better with her hair untied because wtf is this???😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/IH9BTL5ChM
— J𝐀NE𝜗𝜚.˚𐙚💞 (@Blonddieee_) July 7, 2026
I love Gremlin Alicent. I want to keep her in a terrarium and feed her leaves pic.twitter.com/rLXOSvw4mG
— Bhangbhangduc (@bhangbhangducx) July 8, 2026
It’s no wonder why Olivia Cooke deactivated her social media https://t.co/IoRV7bg4fx
— Zak (@zakfilm) July 14, 2026
In addition to her starring role in House of the Dragon, Cooke is also known for projects such as Ouija, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Thoroughbreds, Ready Player One, Sound of Metal, Bates Motel, and The Girlfriend.