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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Jacob Stolworthy

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

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).

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