Lena Headey (Cersei) takes Jimmy Kimmel behind the scenes of Game of Thrones season 8
By Dan Selcke
The final season of Game of Thrones approaches, and HBO is sending its army of cast members out in the wild to do promotion like their careers depend on it, which they don’t, because they’ve Game of Thrones cast members and they can pretty much write their own ticket now.
ANYWAY, Lena Headey — Cersei Lannister herself — appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night to talk up season 8. Does she give anything away? Watch to find out.
So no, she gives absolutely nothing away, but I’m glad to see the press blitz has begun. The closest Headey comes to spilling some behind-the-scenes secrets is when she says she was “like, the 12th one out” when filming on season 8 ended late last year. Basically, she’s saying she was still shooting scenes pretty late into production, although it’s hard to tell if being the 12th star to wrap means much on a cast this big.
Headey also tells a variant on a story we’ve been hearing for awhile: after every cast member’s final scene, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss paused production and gave a speech thanking them for their work. They also presented them with a storyboard of a key scene involving their character. Sophie Turner (Sansa) said she “bawled my eyes out” when it came her turn. Headey, anticipating something similar, tried to duck out early after her last scene, but “they all rushed up and trapped me and they gave this speech and it was really moving…They said some [EXPLETIVE DELETED] but it was all in good humor.”
Finally, I think we can agree the most important thing to come out of this interview is the knowledge that Headey has named Cersei’s blonde bob wig “the itchy turnip.” She’d burn it if she could
She calls Cersei’s short wig “the itchy turnip.” She’d burn it if I could. “I didn’t, they’d sue me, but I’d like to.”
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Beyond that, Headey tells a pretty funny story about a teenage indiscretion and talks up Fighting With My Family, where she plays the matriarch of a professional wrestling family. Check out the trailer:
Fighting With My Family is in theaters February 14, Valentine’s Day. Game of Thrones season 8 premieres April 14, two months later, but you already knew that.
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