Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Game of Thrones star Lena Headey 'loves and admires' Cersei for overcoming HBO show's weak men

The actor also revealed her chosen tactic for channelling the villainous character's evil side

Jacob Stolworthy
Wednesday 13 February 2019 06:25 EST
Comments
Fighting With My Family Clip - What Is WWE?

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Lena Headey has reflected upon her “love” and “admiration” for Cersei Lannister having finished her time on Game of Thrones.

The actor will appear in the eighth and final season, whicb begins in April, and is now looking back at her time on the HBO series in the run-up.

Headey told The Daily Beast that she would take some time to “block” everything out while getting into Cersei’s mindset as she believes “there’s nothing more uncomfortable [for] an audience than I don’t believe you.”

To channel Cersei’s evil streak, Headey says she found inspiration from the character’s cropped wig.

“That makes me very angry, so that helps when they put [the wig] on at 6 a.m. and I’m like, f***.”

She also revealed she would beg showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss to do a couple of comedy takes.

“I’m also a total t*** as well,” she said, adding: “We f*** around more than anyone will ever know. I’m always saying, ‘Can we not do one comedy take?’ And David and Dan are just like, ‘No, we don’t have the time!’ If we did a comedy version of Thrones we’d have enough for two series. We’re such a bunch of eejits, it’s the funniest thing.”

“We’ve seen [these characters] over such a long period of time, and with the subtleties of men’s weaknesses being exposed throughout, these women have risen over the course of this series,“ she said. I

“I really, genuinely love Cersei and think she’s quite funny, so I try to bring humour wherever it’s not going to dampen everything else. But you just have to admire a survivor like that. She absolutely refuses to let go.”

Headey will next be seen in Stephen Merchant’s biographical tale, Fighting With My Family, which is produced by Dwayne Johnson. Game of Thrones begins in April.

This being the final season, HBO has been reticent to reveal much about what to expect, but this hasn’t stopped fans from theorising.

A cryptic trailer teased a huge reveal relating to the heritage of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), while also resurfacing a rather shocking theory about Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright).

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in