Lena Headey

March 13, 2015

6:16 am

photography / Sam Evans-Butler

story / Katie Deutsch

photography Assistant / Jasmina Tomic

styling / Natasha Devereux

styling Assistant / Stacia Carrington

hair / Mark Townsend

makeup / Molly R. Stern

Spoiler Alert: Lena Headey is a stone cold fox. Not a regular fox, but a legitimately, bone-chillingly fierce fox. She regularly shocks HBO audiences as Queen Cersei on GAME OF THRONES, but she was doing bad-ass way before giving all of Westeros the side eye. Case in point, Lena was cast as the title character in the television series TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. People don’t cast wimpy Sarah Connors, they only pick women that would make your mean spin instructor pee in his spandex shorts.
Luckily for all of humanity, Lena Headey is actually nice, sane, well-balanced and hilarious. She loves the Bravo Real Housewives…especially those ladies in New York, Beverly Hills, and Atlanta. So, with a G.O.T. Season 4 tagline of “All men must die,” everyone is left wondering: what is the hot gossip from the Lannister clan, and whose head will be on the chopping block?
“We’re definitely getting down to the wire,” Headey said. “Because the world is getting smaller. So even our heroic characters are showing darker sides; things are getting more precarious.” Precarious doesn’t even begin to describe some of the moments that have happened this season. What is Headey’s take on her bad mama character?
“Jamie comes back at the end of the last season, and [Cersei] is struggling with her feelings for him and how she’s dealt with life without him over the last season. She’s found a new strength and probably lost a bit of her soul in the process,” Headey said. “Now that he’s back, the losing of his hand really doesn’t amuse her. She takes it as a personal insult. She’s very egocentric, so everything is about her.”
If you’re shocked by Headey explaining that Cersei is egocentric, then you need to take a few days with HBO GO and get back to this article later. For the rest of you who have been living above rocks, you may be surprised that Headey does not read the books for spoilers.
“The faithfulness [of the show to the books], it’s a very different thing… the books have been taken in a different direction. I’m surrounded by people who read the books, including my mother, who will comment bit by bit,” much to Headey’s delighted chagrin.
If Lena Headey can receive gleeful spoilers from her Mom and laugh it off, you’ve got to give her snaps. Of course, Headey has lots of other things to do while she’s off the Westeros clock. Over the last hiatus, she was filming another movie called ZIPPER – because stone cold foxes don’t just hang out when they’re on break.
“It’s a political drama about a shamed politician,” she said. “We were shooting in Baton Rouge, which has more churches than Belfast.”
Speaking of churches and the typical events that often happen in them, we had to ask Headey about love. But with Headey, nothing is typical. She just turned forty, but defies the typical youth-obsessed actress stereotype. Headey explains what she loves about her age.
“Turning forty is fucking fantastic,” she reported. “Physically you feel like, ‘why did I not have the confidence when I looked hotter?’ I’m not knocking females for that, I’m just amused by it.” She thought for a moment. “The twenties are really a struggle, because you’re finding out who you are, and it’s treacherous ground. Emotionally, you listen to other people instead of yourself. And I remember turning thirty and thinking, ‘oh my god, this is amazing… I just don’t care anymore!’”
See, the Housewives would have injected something into their adrenal glands and then handed a bottle of scotch to their step-grand-niece, but Headey knows better. She’s a cool mom, regularly taking her son to the skate park when they’re home in Los Angeles.
Headey explains motherhood. “You look at your life before parenting and you’re like, ‘what was I like before?’ I can’t really remember. I must have taken really long showers. Now it’s like you don’t have time to do any of that. It’s like you’re a bit bored of yourself, whatever drama you have, you put it on the back burner,” she said. “It’s just nice seeing life in this innocent way. You see someone’s true colors as they grow into adulthood… It’s quite beautiful.
“I tell [my son], you have to look after your heart and everyone else’s too. That’s the easiest way through life… that and being grateful. That’s what gives you the most peace.”
Wow. Lena Headey went from terrifying queen to love guru, and we didn’t even have to put her in a seat across from a booze-slinging Andy Cohen. Loving mother or stone fox, Headey wears many hats. We have to award her acting serious kudos for pulling off cruel Cersei with such a sweet heart.