Noir also is there lending its shadowy atmosphere to enhance the cool blondes, dogged detectives, unlikely heroes and sympathetic antiheroes among the myriad characters. Horror and suspense, however, don’t wholly comprise the DNA of Psycho and Bates Motel. With Mother whispering sweet, insidious nothings in Norman’s ear, poor Marion Crane didn’t stand a chance. You know you’ve never looked at a shower the same way after watching the 1960 classic.) Based on the Philip Bloch novel, the film introduced the world to the cross-dressing serial killer who ended his mother then subsumed her psychologically. With Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock as its architect, Psycho struck a nerve while birthing the slasher horror genre. After all, as Norman Bates famously said: “A boy’s best friend is his mother.”īut there’s more to the show than that codependent relationship. If you haven’t seen every episode, read at your own risk.Īt its heart, Bates Motel is a story of devotion between a mother and her son. NB: This piece contains spoilers for all five seasons of Bates Motel. Best of all, since the series is largely shot on Warner Brothers' new digital production stage in Watford England, she didn't have to leave home again.The cast of “Bates Motel” (from left): Nestor Carbonell, Vera Farmiga, Freddie Highmore, Olivia Cooke and Max Thieriot Alicent was too good a character to turn down. But after reading the scripts, Cooke didn't hesitate to move forward. During the audition process, she has some reservations about the role: particularly in the wake of the "Game of Thrones" finale controversy, entering the behemoth of Westeros after having just found peace was an understandably daunting prospect. In fact, Cooke has just settled into a "sweet spot" when "House of the Dragon" came her way. Cooke's mental health got better with time, but it wasn't until 2019 that she started to feel free of "the incessant, persistent, anxious thoughts." She attributes moving back to London as a key part of her healing process: "Being in London, I just felt like I'd come home." Another key factor came in the form of the pandemic, which enforced a pause in her career that she called "a tonic." Thankfully, the toll of life, anxiety and her career slowly eased. It didn't help that the schedule kept her working so infrequently, and being under the legal drinking age in America meant there were fewer chances and places to socialize and meet people during all of that downtime. Not only was she settling into a new country, but grappling with the stakes of her career. Cooke was 20 when she began working on the series and was far from home, having just moved to the Unites States from the United Kingdom. The way the schedule worked, we all had different storylines, so a lot of my time was spent in this apartment in Vancouver, working once every two weeks."Ī number of unfortunate factors added up to an "awful" mental health experience. "I'm so grateful for that job, but I had a really tough time on it. But in a recent profile piece for The Guardian, Cooke revealed that it was also one of the toughest times in her life. Just a year after landing the role, she would begin starring in movies. Not too long ago, she was at the center of Steven Spielberg's "Ready Player One," before later starring in the Oscar contender "Sound of Metal." Other roles include "Ouija," "Me Earl ad the Dying Girl," " Thoroughbreds" and the one that stands starkest in my mind, " Bates Motel."Ĭooke was a striking presence in the series, which marked a turning point in her career as a young actress. While this marks one of the actresses' highest profile roles yet, there's a good chance you've also seen Cooke shine elsewhere (hopefully with fewer knives involved). The latest episode of the series gave Cooke some real time to shine: watching Alicent charge at children with a knife probably shouldn't be fun but Cooke's performance made it one hell of a Sunday night watch. While it was a shame to see Emily Carey go, Cooke has more than stepped up to the plate, just in time to play a character that's spiraling into darkness. As far as I'm concerned, the Olivia Cooke Emmy campaign began the day she took over the role of Alicent Hightower in "House of the Dragon." Much like "The Crown," the Thrones prequel series is taking a generational approach to its storytelling, swapping out its performers when a massive time skips calls for aging the characters up.
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