'Game Of Thrones' Lena Headey Really, Really Didn't Understand Cersei's Big Decision
That acid response from Cersei Lannister to grotty pirate Euron Greyjoy's overtures that did the rounds after Game of Thrones' season eight opener - "You want a whore? Buy one. You want a queen? Earn her" - sounded good, but you've got to admit it was sort of undermined by Cersei then sleeping with the bloke about five minutes later.
Well, it turns out that Cersei actor Lena Headey really, really wasn't sold on the idea that her character would be so desperate to cling to power that she'd do that either, and pushed back against showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss to get them to reconsider.
"I kept saying, 'She wouldn’t, she wouldn’t,' that she would keep fighting," Headey told Entertainment Weekly. "But [Benioff and Weiss] obviously know what they’re doing and were adamant Cersei would do what she had to do."
Pilou Ausbæk, who plays Greyjoy, wasn't completely sure with the plot point either, to begin with.
"We had a lot of discussions," he said. "Would it be out of character for her to be with Greyjoy for power? We discussed it so much that we almost ended up going, 'Maybe it’s too much.' Then we decided to try it out and see if it works."
Eventually, Headey softened on the idea that Cersei would acquiesce to Greyjoy's attempts to bang himself closer to the Iron Throne.
"There’s something to play in all of it," she says. "Cersei is such the ultimate survivor in all of this. She refuses to fall to her knees. She goes to the place where she doesn’t want to go, which makes it more powerful and sad because of who she’s not with."
That's her ex Jaime, by the way, who she's only recently hired a hitman to take out if he survives the war with the White Walkers in the north. She's quite hot and cold, is Cersei.
This story originally appeared on Esquire.co.uk. Minor edits have been made by the Esquiremag.ph editors.
