"Game of Thrones" star on Cersei’s horrifying Walk of Shame: "She's either going to die, or these lessons are going to help her in some way"

Actress Lena Headey spoke to Vulture and EW about last night's brutal scene

Published June 15, 2015 2:45PM (EDT)

Jonathan Pryce and Lena Headey in "Game of Thrones"           (HBO)
Jonathan Pryce and Lena Headey in "Game of Thrones" (HBO)

Last night, Cersei Lannister — hair shorn, stripped naked, head encrusted with blood — was led on a brutal, Medieval-style walk of shame through King’s Landing, as angry onlookers screamed insults at her and pelted her with garbage.

It was a grueling scene to watch, and not an easy one to shoot, either. The scene was shot in Dubrovnik, Croatia, but it took a whole lot of negotiating with the Church of St. Nicholas, where the scene began, in order to be allowed to shoot there. It was also mighty expensive, with TMZ reporting that the scene cost $200,000 to shoot, including the 200 security guards hired to make sure no onlookers got a peek at the shoot (although of course, some did).

Talking to Entertainment Weekly, actress Lena Headey opened up about filming the grueling scene, which reportedly took four days to shoot and involved multiple passes through the jeering crowd, although she wasn’t necessarily naked for all of it (EW reports that a body double was used for some of the scene).

“It’s not hard when people are screaming at you and you look like shit and you’re being f–king humiliated to figure out how that would feel,” Headey says. “There’s a part of you that’s f–king terrified. I can’t even imagine people wanting your blood. Cersei has done wrong, but she doesn’t really deserve this.”

While Cersei is arguably one of the most despicable people in Westeros, the way the scene was shot — with the camera fixed firmly on Cersei’s initially stoic, then crumbling, face — certainly helped viewer’s to sympathize with the Lannister queen mom. “I don’t think anyone deserves that treatment,” Headey says. “She’s been beaten and starved and humiliated. She thinks when she comes out and confesses that this is it—even when she’s on her knees [confessing to the High Sparrow], she’s partly lying. She thinks she’s good to go. She has no idea what’s coming when she walks out to the steps, or that they’re going to shave her hair off like Aslan.”

Headey also spoke to Vulture about shooting the scene, giving some further inside into her mindset during the walk -- in particular, what it felt like to be shorn of Cersei's iconic blonde locks. "If I put the wig on, that's massive. That's an immediate feeling," Headey said. "It's really important. What was slightly daunting was what was going to be taken away. It can change how you feel, but it can't change how she is."

Added Hanna Waddingham, who plays the Septa who accompanies Cersei in the scene: "It was the ultimate insult to strip her of her vanity. Her hair is such a mask, like a crown, isn't it?"

Headey, meanwhile, explained that Cersei managed to keep a brave face on by just telling herself 'This is going to be all right.' "That's what she believes, more than anyone else in the world, 'You will survive,'" she said. "Otherwise, you'll just kill yourself. So she's either going to die, or these lessons are going to help her in some way."


By Anna Silman

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