House of the Dragon: fans are angry with Fabien Frankel, the interpreter of Criston Cole

“I remember, I was in a cinema, and someone came up to me to tell me that he hated me!”

When you’re an actor, it’s not easy to play trash on screen – especially when a handful of spectators cannot differentiate between fiction and reality and confuse the character and his interpreter. When Jeffrey Dean Morgan played Negan, the big bad of The Walking Dead, It wasn’t uncommon for him to receive hateful comments. And when Anna Gun played Skyler White, Walter’s wife, in breaking Bad, she experienced so much constant harassment online, she feared for her safety. In 2013, she wrote an open letter published in the New York Times in which she revealed the hatred of which she was a victim.

Today this curse has fallen on Fabien Frankel, the interpreter of the handsome, but cynical Ser Criston Cole in House of the Dragon. In the first season, he was Princess Rhaenyra’s idol, liege shield, protector and lover. Madly in love, he suggested that the Targaryen give up her throne to flee with him and get married. Laughing in his face, she declined his offer. If the versions of this story differ in the novel, Fire and Blood, the result is the same: Ser Criston Cole and Rhaenyra became enemies. He moved closer to the Greens, climbing the ladder one by one to conquer the bed of Alicent, and the trust of Aegon II. In the last episode of season 2, released this Monday, he is even promoted to Hand of the King.

The nerve and pettiness of this man inspire hatred among fans which they do not hesitate to express on social networks, sometimes confusing the character and the Franco-American actor. Although he admits to moving away from Twitter each time an episode is released, for several days the actor has deactivated the comments function on his Instagram account. The reason behind this: virulent and hateful comments against him following the actions of his character.

Interviewed by Allocine on the occasion of the European premiere of season 2 of House of the Dragon, in Paris, Fabien Frankel even added:

“I didn’t know it was going to be so controversial. At first, I was surprised. I remember I was in a movie theater and someone came up to me and told me they hated me! But that’s the nature of this show, it’s like that. The characters are loved, then hated, then loved, then hated. I’m sure it’s going to continue like that.”

Since the release of the last episode, he is not the only one to suffer a wave of hate. According to some fan accounts, the naked appearance of Aemond, played by Ewan Mitchell, earned the actor inappropriate comments evoking body-shaming.

In the Westeros universe, Fabien Frankel is not the first to suffer this collective lynching. Lena Headey, who played the merciless Cersei, sometimes received derogatory comments, Jack Gleeson, who played the cruel, tyrannical and sadistic king Joffrey, also received them. After the death of his character, the actor announced his retirement. In 2022, however, he declared to Entertainment Weekly that he had never had to deal with bad experiences with fans physically.

Faced with the wave of hatred that is sweeping over the actor of the HBO series, fans are blocking the way, expressing their support and sharing videos taken behind the scenes, on the set where we see Fabien Frankel having a good time with his acting partners. An effective way to de-demonize him and prove that it is his effective acting that gives fans something to hate the character for.

And it’s not going to get any better… Because in the episodes that follow Ser Criston Cole will have a crucial role in the battles to come, in the victory and the loss of some…

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