Game of Thrones Lena Headey furious at predatory men
Game of Thrones star Lena Headey says she is furious at the “weird protection” Hollywood still offers predatory men, speaking as she launches BBC radio drama Intimacy. The actor also revisited early nude scenes, her Harvey Weinstein claims, and fan anger over using a body double for Cersei’s walk of shame.
Key Takeaways
- In a Telegraph interview, Headey said industry protection of predatory men “makes me very angry.”
- She accused Harvey Weinstein in 2017 of suggestive talk and trying to force her into a hotel room; she resisted and never worked with Miramax again.
- Game of Thrones Lena Headey said she was “really shocked” by fan anger after using a body double for Cersei’s naked walk of shame.
- Her BBC Sounds series Intimacy, which she wrote and stars in, centers on an intimacy coordinator confronting a powerful director from her past.
- She told HuffPost UK she was “thrown to the wolves” before intimacy coordinators existed on sets.
The remarks land as Headey promotes Intimacy, an eight-part BBC Sounds audio drama also set for BBC Radio 4. For more odd and viral entertainment fallout, see our Bizarre News & Florida Man hub.
Why is Lena Headey furious about predatory men?
Asked about Weinstein while discussing her drama’s abusive-director plot, Headey did not soften her view. “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 told The Telegraph.
She added that one person can sour a job when they are “allowed to get away with it,” and that #MeToo in 2017 showed the problem was “everywhere.” Today, she said, many young women in the business are savvier: “I’m not f---ing doing that.”
In 2017 she accused the former Miramax head of talking suggestively to her at the 2005 Venice Film Festival and, years later, of trying to force her into a Los Angeles hotel room under the pretext of discussing a script. She resisted. She has previously wondered whether that resistance hurt her career.
What shocked Game of Thrones fans about her nude scene?
On Game of Thrones, Headey said she could stand up for herself by the time she played Cersei, unlike younger cast mates who had less camera experience. The show filmed without intimacy coordinators; co-stars have described sex scenes as chaotic and emotionally draining.
When it emerged she used a body double for Cersei’s season-five walk of shame, some fans were furious. “I was really shocked by the anger, by this idea that I’d duped the audience,” she said. Filming among about 3,000 extras, she argued she could not deliver the emotional performance while naked and “in full on defensive mode.”
Separately, she told HuffPost UK that before intimacy coordinators, “I was thrown to the wolves,” and that she once used a back tattoo as leverage when directors sought more nudity than needed.
How does her BBC drama Intimacy connect to set safety?
Intimacy follows Liza Simmons, a former actor turned intimacy coordinator who lands a major film job—only to find the director is a man who raped her years earlier. Headey framed him as an “old school, I-can-do whatever-I-f---ing-want-type of guy.”
She said she never had an intimacy coordinator in her “heyday,” when nude work was common, and now feels more in control in her 50s. On Thrones, she believed a coordinator “would have helped greatly” for younger performers facing heavy sex and nudity.
Intimacy is on BBC Sounds from 22 July 2026, with Radio 4 broadcasts from 27 July.