{"id":569319,"date":"2026-07-26T18:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T18:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569319\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T18:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T18:50:16","slug":"lena-headey-looks-back-i-told-harvey-weinstein-where-to-go-a-decade-of-possibilities-disappeared-lena-headey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569319\/","title":{"rendered":"Lena Headey looks back: \u2018I told Harvey Weinstein where to go. A decade of possibilities disappeared\u2019 | Lena Headey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lena Headey in a yellow onesie opening boxes of Christmas presents<\/a>Lena Headey in 1976 and in 2026. Later photograph: Simon Webb\/The Guardian. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair and makeup: Neusa Neves at Arlington Artists. Archive photograph: courtesy of Lena Headey<\/p>\n

Born in Hamilton, Bermuda, in 1973 and\u00a0raised in West Yorkshire and Somerset, Lena Headey is an actor, writer and\u00a0director. She\u00a0made her film debut in Waterland in 1992. Her career spans\u00a0300, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Game of Thrones<\/a>, in which she played Cersei\u00a0Lannister from 2011 to 2019, earning five Emmy nominations. Intimacy, which she writes, directs and stars in, is an eight-part comedy audio drama for BBC Sounds and Radio\u00a04.<\/p>\n

I was an OG onesie wearer. This was taken on Christmas Day in our house in Bermuda. My parents were in the police force, and for some reason one day the Yorkshire branch decided: \u201cWe\u2019re all going to go to Bermuda for some training.\u201d I don\u2019t remember much from that time, but I know that it was hot, everyone had scooters, and that it was fun.<\/p>\n

My mum says I was an independent kid. If my parents ever tried to help me, I\u2019d shout at them: \u201cLeave it, leave it, leave it!\u201d I was playful and adventurous and liked to wander far\u00a0from home. We left Bermuda when I was six and moved to Somerset, where my brother was born. Having police as parents didn\u2019t make them rule-abiding or strict. Instead \u2013 being a\u00a0kid of the 70s and 80s \u2013 they would go to work while us kids were allowed to do whatever we wanted. I had a feral\u00a0decade, one full of dangerous things done outside, and I feel very grateful for it.<\/p>\n

I had no ambitions to become an\u00a0actor as a child, but I was obsessed with films and loved drama classes, mainly because they were the easy part of school. I found the academic side of learning difficult, but socially I\u00a0survived. I had friends, and was always down for a good time.<\/p>\n

double quotation markI don\u2019t miss being leered at, at all. There\u2019s a liberation to getting older<\/p>\n

From 11 to my late teens, I had a particularly difficult time mentally, to\u00a0the extent that when I was 14 I ran away from home. I got on a bus to Birmingham to meet some older guys\u00a0that I\u2019d met on holiday. I had their\u00a0addresses as we had sent letters\u00a0to each other. What happened next? I\u00a0smoked a bunch of weed, ran\u00a0out of money and went back home.\u00a0After that, my parents took me\u00a0to the doctor. When he asked what\u00a0was wrong, why I ran away, I\u00a0said: \u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know. Everything just\u00a0feels shit.\u201d The doctor\u2019s response was: \u201cYou\u00a0seem depressed.\u201d That was that, no further help.<\/p>\n

When I started acting properly in my late teens, the whole world opened up and I felt much happier. I was 17 when our school entered a play into a competition, and we went to the National Theatre to perform it. They put our photographs up in the lobby, and some casting directors saw them and asked a bunch of us to audition for a film called Waterland. I didn\u2019t have an agent, but I drove to London for the audition at the Groucho Club. I got the part and remember thinking: \u201cGreat! Now I get to leave school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though I was green and clueless, my memories of making that film are of joy and collaboration. The director, Stephen Gyllenhaal, was brilliant and the cast were all young and we got on with each other. On set, there was no hierarchy, no distinction between cast and crew \u2013 we were all in it together. On the other hand, I felt deeply vulnerable and uncomfortable being naked and pretending to have sex with another actor. Nothing\u2019s changed \u2013 I\u2019m still never the most enthusiastic with that side of the job. I\u00a0don\u2019t think any actor wakes up and goes: \u201cOh my God, today\u2019s the day I get to wear a thong and shag someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Waterland I embarked on a\u00a0decade of auditioning. Sometimes it\u00a0was heartbreaking, and sometimes I\u2019d nail a job and feel fantastic. But in general, my 20s and 30s were tough. I\u00a0hadn\u2019t found my own value as a woman and was trading on external,\u00a0social value rather than who I really was.<\/p>\n

Throughout my career, I\u2019ve had great experiences in the industry, and some really bad ones too. I was lucky with Harvey Weinstein. He didn\u2019t get his hands on me because his keycard didn\u2019t work for the hotel room he had taken me to. I was young, cocky and drunk in our first encounter \u2013 and so when I realised what was happening I\u00a0essentially told him to fuck himself. While I was fortunate nothing worse happened, I didn\u2019t ever get another Miramax film after that. A decade and a half of possibilities disappeared. I\u00a0felt I was blacklisted because I\u00a0refused to do what he wanted.<\/p>\n

I was 35 when I auditioned for Cersei in Game of Thrones. It was in a tiny room at HBO in LA. I put everything I\u00a0had into it. Then I heard a phone go off \u2013 it was one of the exec\u2019s. She got up and answered the call and left the room. I watched her walk out, and said: \u201cAre you joking?\u201d At that moment I thought: \u201cI\u2019m never getting this. I am obviously very uncharismatic and unengaging.\u201d Turns out that is quite normal, and I was wrong.<\/p>\n

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Game of Thrones threw me into visibility on a scale I hadn\u2019t experienced before and it was a strange dynamic to contend with. The\u00a0show ran for a decade of my life, one in which I went through a divorce and became a mother, twice. Even though I was in a big show and making money, and had financial security for the first time as an actor \u2013 and for the last time, it turns out \u2013 I was still wrangling with major life changes while being in the public eye. There were lots of weird moments, such as going on holiday with the kids, being half-naked in the sand and someone coming up to me and saying: \u201cCan we do a quick video?\u201d I\u2019d have to say: \u201cNah, not really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fame is not for me. I could employ a stylist and go to the opening of this and that. But I\u2019m really lazy. I look at people who seem to get lots of work and opportunities and ask: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I get that job?\u201d My agent will reply: \u201cWell, if you did a bit more press or agreed to having a publicist, things might be different.\u201d After that, I often think: \u201cNah, forget it.\u201d The trade-off for having lots of work is that you have to get out there, always pushing to be seen. Which is tough when you have Jomo: the joy of missing out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often said that women become invisible when they reach midlife. While it is true, I\u2019ve never liked being available; that feeling of shrinking under the weight of feeling scared and alone when you\u2019re by yourself on a train or in a cab. I\u2019ve had way more horrible experiences than what happened with Harvey, but that is life.\u00a0My main takeaway is that I never, ever, want those things to happen to my children. The biggest stress of being a parent is wanting your children not to feel the same pain or disappointment or violence or sadness. When I\u2019m out with my daughter, who is gorgeous and only 11, I see the power of her beauty in the eyes of men that really shouldn\u2019t be looking at her. I hate it. So I don\u2019t miss being leered at, at all. There\u2019s a liberation to getting older.<\/p>\n

When I see that photo, I wish that I\u00a0could protect my younger self from some of the things she would go through. But I\u00a0can\u2019t. Instead, I\u2019m\u00a0appreciative that I\u00a0can protect my\u00a0girl instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lena Headey in a yellow onesie opening boxes of Christmas presentsLena Headey in 1976 and in 2026. Later…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-569319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}