Lena Headey: Cersei’s a “Wayward Teen”
Please note: This article contains no spoilers from last night’s episode. Read on in safety!
Cersei has spent the first half of this season climbing the ladder of power, now that her father and two brothers are out of the way. With last week’s arrest of Margaery, it seemed like she might be well on her way to conquering all. But viewers sensed that all was not well. After all, Littlefinger clearly played her for a chump with the reveal of the Sansa business, and got himself a promise to make him Warden of the North in return. But what does Lena Headey, who plays Cersei so well, think of her chances? ZapIt’s latest interview with her confirms our fears.
“She’s the person that lives nearby the throne at all times, so I genuinely think she’s like, ‘It’s clearly just going to happen. I’ll just get rid of everybody. She doesn’t really see the bigger consequence, which is also what I love about her is that. [She’s] a wayward teen. She’s not too savvy about things.”
Naturally, like all good teenagers, Headey blames the parents, or lack thereof. Plus falling in with the “wrong crowd” as it were. “She gets involved — wrongly — this season with people she thinks are going to be her allies. It’s kind of interesting, do you know what I mean? She’s a bit like, ‘I know what to do. It doesn’t matter.’ And it doesn’t prove right.”
“The immediacy of her surroundings is her ultimate trap, but she doesn’t realize it,” Headey says. “She’s like, ‘That’s bulls***. That’s magic, that’s rubbish, what are you talking about? As long as my kids are all right. If my kids are all right and one of them gets on the throne — or I do, but that means I die, so that’s rubbish.’ The survival of her immediate family is what’s important, and avenging her mother, which involves killing Tyrion, who she’s hated for her entire life. She’s rather short-sighted in all of this.”
Short-sighted indeed. Unfortunately, Headey gave this interview before she announced her pregnancy, so Zap2It doesn’t ask about her own motherhood in comparison with Cersei’s rather unhealthy attachment to her children. But Big News Network reports that Headey has made a parenting pledge to her as-yet-unborn daughter to give her the kind of freedom that her character would never allow Tommen or Myrcella to have.
“My daughter will have freedom of choice. She will be free to dance, to sing, to be educated in the fields that spark her passion, to marry if she wants, to marry who she wants, to remain single, or to fall in love with another woman. She’ll be able to wear what she wants, put on lipstick, and read books that spark debate and expand her mind. She will be loved, protected, respected, and celebrated.”
If only all girls in Westeros were so lucky.
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