House of the Dragon’s Fabien Frankel Is Standing up for Criston Cole

Imagine you are Fabien Frankel. You are introduced as the swoonworthy, floppy-haired knight, Criston Cole, in one of this year’s most anticipated television shows, House of the Dragon. People fall for your character as quickly as Dragon’s ostensible lead, Princess Rhaenyra, does. A not insignificant portion of the internet begins to tweet thirstily for you. And then, halfway through the season, your character, rebuffed, turns on the princess, shifting from a knight in shining armour to, well, a jerk in shining armour. Less favourable labels are suddenly bandied about: douchebag, incel, and perhaps most damningly, fuckboy. “Someone sent me this article that was like, ‘King of Fuckboy Island’ or something,” Frankel says, laughing. “I don’t really know what a fuckboy is.”

Good point. I offer that it may be someone who fucks around, doesn’t treat women very well, before potentially disappearing. Frankel ponders the definition. Cole is clearly heartbroken, he reasons, and devastated that Rhaenyra is no longer in love with him too. “He’s very heart-led.” It’s one interpretation of the character – who also bludgeons someone to death at his ex’s wedding – though it’s likely the vocal fandom may remain divided. “Obviously, I’m going to back him. It’s great to play a polarising figure, you know?”

We’re speaking at The Londoner hotel in Leicester Square, London, on a bright October morning, and Frankel has just analysed some of the show’s memorable moments for Esquire. The 28-year-old actor, who was born and raised in southwest London, is thoughtful not only about his character’s role but the also the entire Dragon universe. How does a young actor with just a few credits to his name land a part in the prequel to one of the most popular shows in recent history? According to Frankel, there’s no unbelievable story – no nightmare of endless auditions or ridiculous tasks – just a single tape. Five months after submitting it, he got a call to say the part was his. “I was completely baffled,” Frankel says, and he’s still not exactly sure why showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal chose him.

Acting wasn’t totally out of the blue for Frankel. His father, Mark Frankel, was an actor best known for the film Leon the Pig Farmer. He died in 1996 in a traffic accident, when Frankel was two. Frankel says he was raised in a “cinephile house” where his mother, Caroline, would take him and his younger brother, Max, to the cinema every week. “We had a DVD box that was never endingly filled and new DVDs would be put in,” he explains. One of those films was 2001’s A Knight’s Tale. The film, in which the late Heath Ledger leaves his father to become a knight, has obvious resonance for Frankel, on both a professional and personal level. “It was such a profound film for Max and me.”

Growing up, he focussed on his education, though he only really thrived at English, and he later graduated from LAMDA. A few supporting roles followed, including a part on true crime drama The Serpent alongside Jenna Coleman. Dragon, then, is his break-out, and it’s quite the break-out show: the season premiere was the biggest launch in Sky Atlantic’s history, and the audience has grown week-on-week. Filming is equally super-sized, with shoots in multiple countries and some fairly intense scenes. Though it’s difficult to anticipate just how long his character might live – this franchise enjoys killing main players – Frankel’s looking for something slightly smaller next time. “I don’t envision myself doing a big kind of TV show anytime soon.”

While Cole is the type of bloodthirsty, love-him-or-hate-him rogue that have been skulking through the Thrones universe since the franchise began in 2011 (see also: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s Jaime Lannister and Kit Harington’s John Snow), the behind-the-scenes is a world away from the previous show. Take, for example, those sex scenes, which were an often-controversial staple of the fantasy show. Dragon, unlike its predecessor, has an intimacy coordinator. “Long gone are the days where two actors are supposed to just turn up on set and throw themselves into an incredibly awkward intimate situation with no guidance from anyone,” Frankel says.

It’s a far cry from comments made by Thrones alum Sean Bean over the summer, when he voiced concern that intimacy coordinators could “spoil the spontaneity” of such scenes. Frankel said that he spent seven months preparing for his sex scene with Alcock, an intricately choreographed, candlelit castle romp. Still, seven months is a long time to think about a scene, no matter how sexy. Frankel shrugs: “You wouldn’t go into a fight scene without preparing for it.”

Another talking point from Dragon has been its frequent cast changes. Most notably Emma D’Arcy replaced Milly Alcock as Rhaenyra, while Olivia Cooke took over from Emily Carey as her best frenemy, Alicent. Episode by episode, the show’s ever-expanding offspring have grown from babies to toddlers to adults. Even adult characters, such as Paddy Considine’s ailing monarch Viserys, have been noticeably aged up. Frankel is one of the few actors who hasn’t changed significantly. This has not gone unnoticed; online, fans have demanded Frankel drop his skincare routine, while others pondered why the showrunners didn’t just give him a beard with the time jump. It must be strange to stay the same, I say, while everyone around you changes. When those female leads changed, “it felt almost like a different job to some extent,” Frankel admits. It might not have worked if it weren’t for the casting choices, which Frankel calls “brilliant”. He met both Alcock and D’Arcy before the two actresses met each other, and realised they had so many similarities. “I remember telling them both, ‘I can’t wait for you guys to meet’.”

Still, losing a beloved colleague is hard, and he clearly connected with Alcock over their characters’ romantic arc. Case in point: the morning before filming the scene where Cole asks Rhaenyra to elope, Frankel had been listening to a piece of music which reminded him of the moment’s high stakes. He saw Alcock in the make-up trailer, put his headphones in her ears and played the piece of music. “We didn’t speak about it or anything,” he says. An hour later, Alcock swung by Frankel’s trailer, and played him a piece of music too. He won’t say what the music was, that’s just between them, but it’s the type of behind-the-scenes bonding that will delight Dragon fans, especially those mourning the end of Cole and Rhaenyra’s relationship.

Like Thrones before it, Dragon has not only commanded some of the best British talent but also spun it into unexpected places. There’s Smith and Considine of course, but also Rhys Ifans who’s playing it straight as ambitious courtier Otto Hightower. They’ve all played their own role for Frankel – Smith the older brother figure, Ifans the crazy uncle, Considine a “profound” advice giver – and also provided a professional blueprint. “If I’m ever lucky enough, I’d like to emulate their careers,” Frankel says, pointing to their ever-changing list of directors.

Speaking of directors, Frankel mentions he has a very exciting meeting with one in the next few days. I hazard a guess at the mystery director: could it be Luca Guadagnino, who has just told Vanity Fair that Frankel has caught his eye? “There is something completely graceful about him and this beautiful physicality he has,” the Italian director opined. Yes, that would be the one. Frankel seems delighted he can enthuse openly about Guadagnino’s work, from A Bigger Splash to Suspiria. It was a pinch-me moment, especially gratifying in a career that can involve months of not hearing back. “I’ve got a list of directors on my phone that I dream of working with, and if any of those directors come calling, I’m going to say ‘yes’,” Frankel says. “It’s a chance to make something with the people who have inspired me to become an actor.”

House of the Dragon is available Mondays exclusively on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW.

Freeze Frame with Fabien Frankel was shot in 8 at The Londoner. Check it out here.