In a recent interview, Olivia Cooke, best known now for her role in ‘House of the Dragon’, spoke about how her family views her enormous success.
Olivia Cooke has been candid about the obstacles of breaking into the entertainment industry as a working-class actress with a northern accent. She is perhaps best known at this time for her role in Dragon Housethe HBO series currently in its third season.
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The third season premieres on HBO Max, Sky Atlantic and Now, the UK streaming service, on June 22. The end is now in sight, as the show will conclude with its fourth and final season.
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talking to the guardianCooke talked about how his family views his enormous success and the gap between where he comes from and where he goes.
“You’re not working class anymore.”
Despite her global success, her own mother no longer fully believes in the working class label.
“She tells me, ‘You’re not working class anymore,’” Cooke laughs. “I think my sensibility is still working class. I’ve just, against all odds, been very successful in my field.”
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Cooke also addressed what he sees as a serious problem facing television, film and theater: the risk of becoming completely “homogenized” and “boring” without adequate funding for youth arts programs.
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“There is a huge amount of talent to be found in these places, but they need to be funded, and it can’t just be the Harrow and Eton crowd, because you’ll only get one version of the story, and it won’t be true,” he said.
In his view, limiting opportunities to those at Britain’s most prestigious private schools means the public will only have one perspective, while funding drama workshops in working-class areas would uncover a much wider range of voices and stories.
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His passion for the subject arises from his personal experience. Cooke began attending Oldham Theater Workshop, a local youth group down the street, at age eight. She has dryly traced the origins of her acting instinct to growing up as the eldest of two daughters in a divorced family, remembering plenty of “Look at Me, Love Me” energy as a child.
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As arts funding faces increasing pressure, Cooke was forthright about her frustration with the political response. He said: “I thought that with a Labor government these things would be prioritized, but it seems that is not the case,” referring to Britain’s current Labor government, which came to power in 2024.
He also argued that creative spaces matter beyond simply producing the next generation of artists.
“Even if you don’t want to be an actor, it’s important to have a place to go and express yourself and not be stuck in your room with your phone. You can develop social skills. Kids today are very isolated. And with the rise of the manosphere, the antidote to that is playing and showing kids that they can be tender and emotional and that it’s beautiful and cool and stimulating to be on stage,” Cooke said.
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