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Lena Headey gave a wide-ranginginterview with The Telegraph and opened up on her experiences in Hollywood with nudity and predatory men. The “Game of Thrones” Emmy nominee accused Harvey Weinsteinof sexual harassment
in 2017, claiming he made suggestive comments to her at the Venice Film Festival when they were promoting “The Brothers Grimm.” Years later, Weinstein allegedly invited Headey to his hotel to show her a script.
“We walked to the lift and the energy shifted,” Headey once explained of the encounter. “My whole body went into high alert. The lift was going up and I said to Harvey, ‘I’m not interested in anything other than work, please don’t think I got in here with your any other reason, nothing is going to happen.’ I don’t know what possessed me to speak out at that moment, only that I had such a strong sense of ‘don’t come near me.’”
Speaking to The Telegraph, Headey said: “The weird protection that we offer predatory men in the business because of the disproportionate power they wield set against the need among vulnerable actresses to work to put food on the table to get the job – it makes me very angry. A job can be completely soured by one person who, for some reason, is allowed to get away with it. It was only when the #MeToo movement erupted [in 2017] that we realized – oh, this is everywhere… I think most young women I speak to now in this business are so savvy. The attitude today is, ‘I’m not fucing doing that’.”
It took awhile for Headey to learn that she could stand up for herself on film and television sets. She noted that when she started out as an actor “there was this rite of passage all young female actors had to go through, which usually involved snogging and falling in love, and having sex and showing your boobs. They’d call them the ingenue parts, to make it sound nicer.”
“But I just got on with it,” Headey said. “I didn’t go to drama school so I would just arrive on a set and be, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got a job’. And when it came to those moments, I don’t think I even questioned that I should be safe. Instead I’d go home and cry, or think, ‘Oh, that felt weird and too familiar.’ Now I look back and feel, ‘Hmm, that was rough.”
“Game of Thrones” was infamous for his sex scenes and nudity, which often struck many critics as gratuitous. Cast member Gemma Whelan once said these scenes were “a frenzies mess” to shoot, while Emilia Clarke admitted to crying after filming certain sex scenes. “Thrones” was filmed before intimacy coordinators became a standard job on productions. Headey was not an ingenue when she landed “Thrones,” so she was able to stand up for herself more.
“By that point I’d been through the wringer,” the actor toldThe Telegraph. “I could stand up for myself. I’m not saying those actresses couldn’t, but they were much younger and more vulnerable, and had far less experience of being in front of people and the camera and performing. Whereas I was of an age where I’d just tit about and diffuse anything uncomfortable with idiocy.”
And yet, Headey found herself in the middle of backlash when she decided to use a body double in “Game of Thrones” Season 5 during her character’s naked walk of shame. When it was revealed that a body double and some CGI was used for the nude scene, some “Thrones” fans scorned her on social media.
“I was really shocked by the anger, by this idea that I’d duped the audience,” Headey said looking back at the outrage. “But by that point everyone knew [the cast], it was insane simply going anywhere, and I was with 3000 extras. Acting is a joy but it requires a lot of you. I wouldn’t have been able to do the emotional part of the job; I’d have been in full on defensive mode.”
Headey told Entertainment Weekly at the time that “some people thought I was less of an actress because I didn’t get my tits out. It was really a bit shocking. I’ve done nudity. I’m not averse to it. But I know I’m a very emotional actor and I get really driven by that. In order to do my job, I allow myself to be really vulnerable. I don’t know any other way to do my job. Things really affect me. And the thought of being naked for three days and trying to contain her in the way she would be I think I would feel very angry. I didn’t want to be angry. I don’t think Cersei would be angry. I did what I thought she would do, emotionally.”
Head over to The Telegraph’s website to read Headey’s interview in its entirety.
