House of the Dragon star Emily Carey reveals she deleted Twitter after criticism

Milly Alcock as young Rhaenyra Targaryen and Emily Carey as young Alicent Hightower in The House of the Dragon.

One of the stars of the Game of Thrones prequel has revealed she was forced to delete social media after one of her debut press appearances.

British actress Emily Carey, 19, who plays a younger version of Alicent Hightower in HBO's House of the Dragon, which premieres on Binge and Foxtel at 11 am today, found herself at the centre of her first social media storm after comments she made at Comic-Con in July.

The former child star ruffled feathers among the diehard GoT fandom when she discussed creating a backstory for her morally-questionable character to humanise her, which prompted a stream of hate from readers of George RR Martin's books, who accused Carey of not understanding the source material and failing to accept Alicent was a villain.

Emily Carey had to delete Twitter after comment backlash. Photo / AP

Speaking to news.com.au, the confessed social media fanatic said she temporarily deleted Twitter to drown out the mounting criticism ahead of the series premiere.

"I love social media. I'm 19, so I'm all on social media, and I've been on social media since I was a kid because I've worked since I was a kid so I'm very conscious of things … Any hate that comes in, it's just … It's a person behind a screen. You just have to move on from it," Carey said.

"But I will say I did delete Twitter [after Comic-Con] because it's just so loud. Even when it's good, there's so many and it's so loud.

"I love the buzz, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it can be overwhelming, and that's me being completely transparent."

At the time of the backlash, Carey wrote in a since deleted tweet: "I stand by what I said in the panel. Alicent is not the villain, folks. When we meet her she's a child, a product of the patriarchy. Just you wait and see. Maybe you'll sympathise."

While she conceded she had to "switch off for a bit" for the sake of her mental health, Carey said there was more than enough support to drown out the hate.

"Post Comic-Con there was a lot of noise, but what's really lovely is a lot of fans noticed that I switched off Twitter and have come to me on other platforms that I use more often and have messaged me making sure I'm okay," she added.

"So I'm definitely feeling the positive vibes from it now, which is really nice.

"I'm very respectful of the fans in the sense of, we're stepping into their world rather than they are watching our world.

"The fans are great. I think, for the most part, we've been welcomed in warmly to this fanbase."

Carey plays the young version of Alicent, who is later portrayed by fellow Brit Olivia Cooke.

House of the Dragon is available to stream on Neon from August 22.