Lena Headey: Cersei is “a horrible cow to one particular character” in season 7

And the season 7 interview blitz continues, with a twist. Game of Thrones cast member Maisie Williams (Arya) interviewed fellow Game of Thrones cast member Lena Headey (Cersei) in Net-A-Porter. It’s a fun way of getting around those irritating go-betweens, and the fact that the two of them know each other loosens them up.

For instance, Headey had no reservations about expressing how much she loved the scene where Cersei blew up the Sept of Baelor at the end of season 6. “I thought that was great,” she said.

"The High Sparrow [played by Jonathan Pryce] was yet another man who came along and was like, “I’m going to manipulate you.” So I think her revenge… Well, I was like, “Yes! F*** you!” And she took out Margaery Tyrell [Natalie Dormer] and her low-cut blouse. Bye, perky tits."

Headey identifies the Sept explosion as the highlight of season 6, and teases some serious unpleasantness to come in season 7, on account of Cersei having lost everything. “Whatever
was good [in her life] has been erased and she’s a horrible cow to one particular character… It’s really quite loathsome.” Yes, please.

Has playing Cersei affected how she raises her two kids? Thankfully, hell no. “What I want for my children is for them to be kind and conscious and happy and that’s it, really,” she said. “I don’t want them to think, ‘You have to achieve that in order to have that,’ because that’s not true anymore. And I want my daughter to have a good voice and to use it, to not feel restricted by being a woman in any way, to make her choices freely.”

Headey and Cersei may not have much in common, but they both seem very connected to their children. Headey revealed, for example, that she filmed the first season of the show while in a fog of postpartum depression following the birth of her son Wylie, “figuring out motherhood and going through a weird time personally. It was tricky.” Obviously, she got through it, and might have even gotten a crash course in what her kids will be like when they hit their tweenage years by hanging out around younger cast members like Williams, Sophie Turner (Sansa), and Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran). “I just think it’s great; you’ve grown up with this, and you’ve remained delightful,” she told Williams. “There isn’t a knob amongst you, which is incredible. Not everybody would have come out…knobless.”

As for life on set, both actors appear to enjoy, with Headey enjoying many laughs courtesy of Peter Dinklage (Tyrion) and Conleth Hill (Varys). “[On set] I fall down a lot, on those stairs, when I’m trying to be really regal. They’re so old now, those steps, and they’re really slippery.” But there are times when the drama of the show hits home, as when she got a load of footage from “The Door”:

"Last season I was doing [post-production] in LA and watched Hodor’s death. I was just weeping. The technician said, “Are you OK?” and I went, “I didn’t know, I didn’t know he died.” I was beside myself; genuinely heartbroken."

Finally, the question that was destined to be asked once these two got in a room together: what would happen if Cersei and Arya met? “Surely Arya would kill Cersei?” Headey said. “Arya’s such a little fiend that she would find a way. Look, she f****** wears people’s faces.”

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We’ll find out if any of that comes to pass when season 7 debuts on July 16.