'House of the Dragon' Star Olivia Cooke Opens Up About 'Awful' Mental Breakdown

Olivia Cooke, who is known for playing Alicent Hightower in the popular series "House of the Dragon," has opened up about having a "full mental breakdown" when she was 22.

The actress had previously portrayed Emma Decody in the thriller series "Bates Motel." The 28-year-old disclosed she had a tough time filming the series in Canada because of the work schedule.

"I'm so grateful for that job, but I had a really tough time on it," Cooke told The Guardian on Sunday. "The way the schedule worked, we all had different storylines, so a lot of my time was spent in this apartment in Vancouver, working once every two weeks."

The series ran from 2013 to 2017.

The actress went on to explain how she had a "full mental breakdown" because she was feeling homesick and was working continuously since she was 18.

"It was a big old lovely cocktail: being homesick and not knowing it, having not stopped since I was 18, being on my own for large swathes of time," she said.

Cooke shared even though she was going through a rough patch, considering her mental health, she still continued to work.

"Oh, no, I was working all the way through," she said. "I was very good at hiding it. If anything, I was like, let me escape myself."

The actress noted 2019 became better for her mental health as she had her "incessant, persistent, anxious thoughts" fade away with time.

The British actress explained breaking up with boyfriend, actor Christopher Abbott before the pandemic was a reason why she returned to London, and it helped her to heal.

"Well, I think because I left America I was like: 'This is glorious!'" Cooke said jokingly.

The actress took over the role of Alicent from episode six of "House of The Dragon," which was filmed in various locations including the U.K., Iceland, Croatia, Spain and Portugal. "House of the Dragon" is a prequel of "Game of Thrones," which ran from 2011 to 2019.

Aside from this HBO series, Cooke will be next seen in a thriller "Mother's Milk," which is helmed by director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte. The movie is currently under post-production.