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Lena Headey has been in Hollywood for more than 3 decades and achieved global fame as Cersei Lannister in HBO’s Game of Thrones. She has now opened up about the bitter truth of Hollywood that she faced when she initially joined the industry.
According to People, the 52-year-old revealed that the entertainment industry has long protected “predatory men” while leaving vulnerable actresses to navigate unsafe working environments. Speaking to The Telegraph about her new BBC radio drama Intimacy, which Lena Headey wrote and stars in, Headey explained that the project was inspired by experiences she witnessed throughout her career. The story is about an intimacy coordinator who lands a job on a major film only to find out that the director is the same man who raped her years ago.
Headey shared that the project draws from experiences she witnessed throughout her career. She highlighted that the intimacy coordinators became commonplace. Lena Headey told the publication, “Oh, even today you can still be on set where no one really cares [about the actors]. You can be doing a nude scene, and someone will say, ‘Okay, put this large lumpy mat against your groin’. But I’m in my 50s now, and I feel more in control. It’s a different game.”
The actress explained that things were different when she first joined the industry. She said, “When I started out, there was this rite of passage all young female actors had to go through, which usually involved snogging and falling in love, and having sex and showing your boobs. They’d call them the ingenue parts, to make it sound nicer.”
Looking back, she admitted she rarely questioned whether she was adequately protected because she was simply grateful to have work. “I just got on with it,” she said. “I didn’t go to drama school so I would just arrive on a set and be, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got a job.’ And when it came to those moments, I don’t think I even questioned that I should be safe. Instead I’d go home and cry, or think, ‘Oh, that felt weird and too familiar.’ Now I look back and feel, ‘Hmm, that was rough.'”
In 2017, Headey also accused former Miramax producer Harvey Weinstein. She revisited those in the interview and reflected on how the industry offers weird protection to men in the business. Reportedly, Weinstein made suggestive comments to her at the Venice Film Festival in 2005 and later tried to lure her into his hotel room under the pretext of discussing a script.
When asked how she feels about the entire Weinstein situation, she declared that her frustration extends beyond one individual. She said, “The weird protection that we offer predatory men in the business, because of the disproportionate power they wield set against the need among vulnerable actresses to work to put food on the table to get the job — it makes me very angry.” She added, “A job can be completely soured by one person who, for some reason, is allowed to get away with it.”
The actress added that the #MeToo movement fundamentally changed how many people viewed Hollywood. She said, “It was only when the #MeToo movement erupted [in 2017] that we realized — oh, this is everywhere,” she said, adding that many younger actresses today are far more willing to establish boundaries. “I think most young women I speak to now in this business are so savvy. The attitude today is, ‘I’m not f—ing doing that.'”
