House of Dragons star returns to Australia to get Upright and personal

House of Dragons star Milly Alcock has teamed up with Tim Minchin for a second season of Aussie dramedy Upright.

Keeping upright is something Aussie actor Milly Alcock had to learn fast – thanks to dragons knocking her off her feet.

The 22-year-old star returns to the small screen in Aussie dramedy Upright, with Tim Minchin, after flying to fame in the big-budget House of the Dragon.

“It’s certainly been a wild ride,” Milly tells Insider in London.

“You live your whole life as you and then someone places value on you, so that’s … readjusting,” she says.

“I forget how big the show’s been and I’ll be out and people will be like, ‘aagh,’ so then you’ve got to turn it on, no matter if you’re having a bad day. It’s a very difficult thing to navigate and I’m trying to keep the right people around me.”

Upright co-star Tim Minchin is one of those. The performer, who co-wrote the hit Foxtel series, has been an outspoken supporter and mentor, particularly because he set her on her journey to fame the minute she began that road trip to Perth with him in the first series, four years ago.

Tim Minchin and Milly Alcock for season two of Upright.

“Tim is very protective of me,” she says, “He feels like, ‘Oh no, what have I done’,” she says, with a laugh.

Now based in the UK, she says although more people recognise her, she has fewer people talk to her than in the past.

While her star is in its ascendance, Milly says she enjoyed going back to earth in Australia for Upright Season Two. The series reunites Lucky and Meg, this time on a mission to track down Meg’s mum in Far North Queensland.

Milly flew home straight after wrapping House of the Dragon, to film in Queensland, earlier this year. “I’ve never returned to a character before, so that was a big challenge being Meg again,” she says.

“But as soon as I got into her body and her boots, especially, it made things a lot easier.

“Meg wore her heart on her sleeve and that’s so much fun to play.”

Milly Alcock.

One thing she is clear on, though, is she’s done with fantasy.

“Absolutely,” she says.

“The opportunities that House of the Dragon brought me will change the rest of my life. And I will be eternally grateful for it. But, for me, the endgame of my job isn’t to be a movie star. That’s not why I’m doing this.”

Instead, she’s looking for roles where the stories are “centralised around character, as opposed to plot. They’re the types of narratives that really inspire me to go to work.”

Having had rave reviews for her rendition of the young Rhaenyra Targaryen, something tells us Milly is headed for movie-star fame on the back of that dragon, whether she likes it or not. But don’t expect her to lose perspective. One of the side-effects of her new-found fame has been becoming a fashion favourite and her Instagram page, with its 1.4 million followers, is full of images of her in campaigns for the likes of Prada and Vogue.

Is she enjoying that? “Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s not so much fun. I’m not a model. It’s really uncomfortable seeing yourself on camera,” she says.

That may be, but the camera certainly loves what it sees.

Upright season 2 airs on Tuesdays at 8.30pm on FOXTEL. All episodes are available to watch On Demand on FOXTEL.