17-Year-Old ‘House Of The Dragon’ Star Emily Carey Felt “Scared” to Film Sex Scenes with 47-Year-Old Paddy Considine

House of the Dragon star Emily Carey admits she felt apprehensive about her sex scenes with her costar, Paddy Considine, in part due to the 30-year age gap between the two of them. Carey, whose character Alicent Hightower weds King Viserys I (Considine) in the hit HBO series, told Newsweek she was initially “scared” and “concerned” to film intimate moments for House of the Dragon, especially after seeing its TV predecessor, Game of Thrones.

“There’s a lot of violent sex [in GoT] and it made me nervous,” Carey told Newsweek. “I was like, ‘Oh God, what am I gonna have to do in this show?'”

Thankfully, House of the Dragon‘s intimacy coordinator was “amazing,” Carey said, explaining that she was only 17 when she began filming, and having someone on set to help navigate sensitive scenes made her feel more comfortable.

“[T]he first scene that I read from the show was my sex scene and my intimacy scenes, that includes the scene where I’m bathing the king — anything that felt intimate was considered an intimacy scene, which I thought was great,” Carey said.

She added, “But, it scared me, because at that point I still hadn’t met Paddy, I didn’t know how much of a joy he was and how easy he was going to make [the scene], and all I saw was, you know, a 47-year-old man and me, I was a bit concerned.”

The intimacy coordinator allowed Carey “to talk everything through and not be shunned, or not feel awkward, or not feel like ‘Oh, this isn’t your job,'” she explained.

Carey’s thoughts on intimacy coordinators are pretty much as far as you can get from Sean Bean‘s hot (and bad) take. The GoT alum trashed the concept of coordinators on set, claiming they rob shows and movies of “spontaneity.”

“I think the natural way lovers behave would be ruined by someone bringing it right down to a technical exercise,” Bean told the U.K.’s Times Magazine, per Variety, in August.

Hopefully after hearing Carey’s take, he’ll change his mind.

House of the Dragon airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.