After Game of Thrones, Lena Headey wondered, “What do I do?”
By Dan Selcke
For eight years, Lena Headey played Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones. She was a successful actor before, but playing the power-mad queen brought her a whole new level of visibility, to the point where she was at a bit of a loss over what to do next.
“Thrones was such a surprise,” Headey told PEOPLE. “But there was no part of me that went, ‘Oh, it’s done now. Life’s going to be easy.’ It opened doors, it made certain things easier. It also made things feel harder because you think, ‘What do I do?'”
Headey adjusted; she’s currently starring in the HBO show White House Plumbers, about the Watergate scandal. But it’ll be a long time before people forget her run as Cersei. “I just get love,” she said. “It’s weird when you’re on holiday with your kids and you’re in the midst of a sandcastle and someone’s like, ‘Hey!’ And you’re like, ‘Have you seen me?’ Those moments still happen, which are bizarre, but people are generally lovely.”
Lena Headey knew “zero” about the Watergate scandal before signing on to new HBO show
Headey has two kids, aged 13 and 7. They “don’t really talk about” her career, but it’s impossible for them not to pick up on a few things. “If someone says, ‘Oh, you’re in Game of Thrones‘, my youngest now says things like, ‘What is Game of Thrones?'” Headey said. “In fact, the other day she went, ‘My mommy is in…’ And I was like, ‘You don’t tell people!'”
Maybe Headey will start getting approached about White House Plumbers, where she plays Dorothy Hunt, the wife of Watergate ringleader E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson).
Despite starring in a TV series about this famous American political scandal, Headey admits she still isn’t clear on the history. “I didn’t know anything about it — big fat zero,” she said. “I still don’t, if you were to quiz me. What I do know is that to get to create this duo with Woody, this sort of portrait of a s—y marriage, was fun.”
HBO drops new episodes of White House Plumbers on Mondays.
Next. We met Emilia Clarke’s Secret Invasion character in Captain Marvel. dark
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