Key Points

• Fabien Frankel, a.k.a. Criston Cole on House of the Dragon, shares how he disguised himself as a makeup artist to sneak onto the Supergirl set.

• Frankel and Supergirl star Milly Alcock are still friends years after their time on the Game of Thrones prequel.

• “I had a makeup kit. I put on some glasses and did my best makeup artist impression,” he says.

Fabien Frankel and Milly Alcock go way back. The two came up together on House of the Dragon, for which Frankel played Ser Criston Cole and Alcock portrayed a younger Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. She only had four episodes to headline season 1 of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series before a time jump brought in Emma D’Arcy to pick up the role through to the end, but the pair shared significant scenes together.

So when Frankel heard that his former costar was filming the Supergirl movie at Leavesden Studios, the same home base for the House of the Dragon season 3 production, he knew he had to say hi.

“One of Milly’s makeup girls, Natalie, is a friend of mine because she worked on House of Dragon, as well,” the actor recalls in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Natalie Wickens worked on season 1 of their fantasy drama series before coming aboard Supergirl, starring Alcock as Kara Zor-El, cousin of Superman (David Corenswet) from Krypton in the DC universe (a.k.a. the DCU).

“I guess I was kind of in cahoots with Natalie,” Frankel continues. “Natalie was like, ‘This is what we need to do. We need to get you through security.'”

So they hatched a plan. “I moonlit as a makeup girl,” he says. “I had a makeup kit. I put on some glasses and did my best makeup artist impression — I won’t do it now — and they snuck me onto the set and then I just waited there. Milly was shooting. She wasn’t in her Supergirl outfit, though. But then she came off and then they were doing final checks. I went up instead of Natalie and I was like, ‘Okay, Milly. Final checks, please.’ And Milly was like, ‘Oh my God! What are you doing here?’ It was very sweet.”

In Alcock’s telling of it from back in June, it was she who snuck Frankel on set. “He almost got in trouble,” she recalls at the time. Speaking of her Supergirl director Craig Gillespie, the actress said, “Craig loves to do this amazing thing where he doesn’t cut. So we rolled for like 20 minutes, and Fabien was just there, stuck in that lock-in.”

Frankel and Alcock’s characters were intertwined on House of the Dragon season 1. Rhaenyra, her father’s chosen heir to one day sit the Iron Throne and rule Westeros, helps appoint Criston, a lowborn knight, to the Kingsguard before striking up a romantic relationship. When he expresses his wish to leave the capital and build a life together, she refuses. The rebuff contributes to the future civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, in which Rhaenyra battles her half-brother Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) for the seat of power.

Seeing how far Alcock has come since those days, Frankel remarks, “We’re very proud of her.”

Frankel has been making the press rounds in light of a big spoiler moment that happened on House of the Dragon season 3. “I feel proud to be [REDACTED] in a way,” he tells EW. “I never [REDACTED] on TV. I’d never [REDACTED] in anything until this. It’s my first-ever [REDACTED].”