House of the Dragon star Emma D'Arcy on the viral Negroni Sbagliato meme: 'I feel so embarrassed'

If you've been on social media lately, you know the Negroni Sbagliato with Prosecco is the drink of the moment, even if you don't know why exactly everyone's talking about. We have House of the Dragon star Emma D'Arcy to thank, and they have since responded to becoming a viral meme.

"I keep thinking I should tell my mum 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," the actor, who uses they/them pronouns and identifies as nonbinary, told The New York Times in a recent interview when asked about it.

"I feel so embarrassed," D'Arcy added. "Because in those interviews, when we've been at it for six hours, I'm honestly only trying to make Olivia [Cooke] laugh" — which is beyond sweet when you know the connection both these thespians share.

D'Arcy previously told EW of first meeting Cooke, "I don't know what Liv would say, but I think I fell in love with her in about 45 seconds. Well, I probably worked quite hard to cover that up. You know those chance meetings that happen where there's a familiarity? For some unknown reason, I really felt that with Liv."

Cooke agreed: "We hit it off right away."

So, here's some background on the meme in question. D'Arcy and Cooke, who took over the lead roles of Rhaenyra and Alicent Hightower as adults midway through House of the Dragon season 1, filmed a promo for HBO in which they pull random scrolls out of a chalice and ask each other questions. It's a "get to know me"-style conversation.

One of the questions Cooke pulled for D'Arcy was, "What's your drink of choice?"

"A Negroni..." D'Arcy replies.

"I was gonna say the same thing," Cooke says, beginning to banter.

"Sbagliato... with Prosecco in it," D'Arcy continued, leaning in to give Cooke a flirty smirk.

And let's not forget the cherry on top of this perfectly mixed cocktail: Cooke's reply, "stunning."

LGBTQ TikTokers, specifically those in the nonbinary and gender-queer spaces, began lusting after D'Arcy from this moment and sharing stitches of the clip on the platform. Now, it's blown up so much NPR is writing articles about the Negroni Sbagliato.

We don't make the rules, we just enforce them. Negroni... Sbagliato... with Prosecco in it is the moment.

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