star has confessed how astonished she was that fans were upset over her character Cersei Lannister's nude 'Walk of Atonement.'
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Lena Headey Surprised by Cerseis Backlash
Game of Thrones star Lena Headey has confessed how astonished she was that fans were upset over her character Cersei Lannister's nude 'Walk of Atonement.'Cersei...
Cersei, one of the show's most ruthless power brokers, is
When her city of King's Landing falls into the grip of a religious sect called the Faith Militant, her incest is exposed and she is forced to march naked through the streets as hordes of townspeople hurl garbage and excrement at her and hiss: 'Shame!'
At the time, the scene was greeted with a burst of online outrage over the fact a strong female character had been debased by a sexual humiliation ritual.
Then it emerged that Headey had used a body double for the sequence - eliciting what she describes as a backlash that confounded her.
'I was really shocked by the anger, by this idea that I’d duped the audience,' the 52-year-old actress shared in a new profile for the Telegraph.
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Game of Thrones star Lena Headey has confessed how astonished she was that fans were upset over her character Cersei Lannister's nude 'Walk of Atonement.'
'I was really shocked by the anger, by this idea that I’d duped the audience,' the 52-year-old actress shared in a new profile for the Telegraph; pictured at the 2019 Emmys
'But by that point everyone knew [the cast], it was insane simply going anywhere, and I was with 3000 extras,' added the 300 alumna.
'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.'
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Cersei, one of the show's most ruthless power brokers, is introduced to viewers in the throes of an affair with her warrior brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau)
When her city of King's Landing falls into the grip of a religious sect called the Faith Militant, her incest is exposed and she is forced to march naked through the streets
'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,' Headey explained.
'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,' she said.
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Headey hailed her body double Rebecca van Cleave as 'wonderful,' observing that she was 'able to contain herself and be naked' in spite of the fact she 'found it very difficult, obviously. It's not a natural thing to do.'
However she firmly denied the steadily gathering fan theory that she had personally handpicked van Cleave - who is more than a decade her junior - because she 'demanded to have a hot body' onscreen.
'In reality, I said: "If somebody will do this, I'll have no choice about it. Whatever you decide." I had no judgment in that or desire to be involved,' she maintained.
The Bermuda-born actress insisted that 'none of it is about vanity for me - none of it- otherwise I couldn't do it. It would be a hindrance.'
When Headey initially faced blowback for having availed herself of a stand-in, van Cleave publicly sprang to the actress' defense.
'I personally don’t agree with anybody who says having a body double detracts from the scene. Lena put her heart and soul into that scene,' van Cleave said.
'It should all be about the finished product, not about whose body was where and whose head was where,' she maintained to Entertainment Weekly.
