Before Milly Alcock suited up as one of DC’s most beloved heroes, she was a 22-year-old actress convinced her moment had already passed. The Australian star, now 25, has opened up about the fear and self-doubt that gripped her after her celebrated run on HBO’s House of the Dragon came to an end, and what it took to push herself toward the role that will define the next chapter of her career.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, Alcock reflected candidly on the anxiety that followed her breakout performance as young Rhaenyra Targaryen in the first season of the Game of Thrones spinoff. She described being gripped by a genuine terror that her career prospects had peaked before she had truly begun, and admitted that landing the lead role in the upcoming Supergirl film required her to actively fight through that fear and push herself into accepting the part.
A breakout cut short by design
Alcock made her mark on House of the Dragon quickly and unmistakably, but the nature of the show’s storytelling meant her time on screen was always going to be limited. The series spans decades within its narrative, and Alcock appeared in just five episodes of the first season before the character aged into a different actress. She returned for two episodes of the second season in 2024, but for most of the show’s run, her breakout role was generating enormous attention for a performance that audiences could no longer see.
That gap between visibility and opportunity is what made the transition so difficult. While House of the Dragon continued drawing viewers and critical praise, Alcock was navigating the particular challenge of having broken through in a role she no longer occupied, searching for what came next from a position that looked stronger on paper than it felt in reality.
Finding her footing before Supergirl
In 2025, Alcock starred in the Netflix series Sirens, and made her first appearance in James Gunn’s DC Universe with a brief but significant cameo at the close of Superman, establishing her character as the big-screen cousin of David Corenswet’s Clark Kent. That appearance set up what arrives in theaters on June 26, when Alcock leads the second film in Gunn’s DC Universe as Supergirl, a character described in the film’s official synopsis as reluctantly joining forces with an unlikely companion on an epic interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.
The road to that role, by Alcock’s own account, was not a straightforward one. She has described the decision to take it as something she essentially had to force herself into, a deliberate act of self-persuasion at a moment when her confidence in her own future was far from certain.
On being a woman in franchise spaces
Alcock has also addressed the particular pressures that come with stepping into a major superhero role as a woman. Reflecting on her experience with House of the Dragon, she noted that simply existing as a woman in a high-profile franchise space invites a kind of public commentary and scrutiny that has nothing to do with the work itself. She described a cultural tendency toward a sense of ownership over women’s public personas and bodies, and made clear that her response to it is to focus on the one thing within her control: being herself.
It is a grounded posture for someone about to step into one of the most scrutinized roles in superhero cinema, and it suggests that whatever doubt once held her back has largely been worked through.
After Supergirl, Alcock is set to appear in the comedy Thumb alongside Sofía Vergara and Kate McKinnon, and will costar with Toni Collette in Hot Mother. Supergirl opens in theaters June 26.
Source: PEOPLE.com / Vanity Fair