Lena Headey Wanted a "Better Death" for Cersei on Game of Thrones
WARNING: This story contains spoiler for Game of Thrones Season 8.
Not a fan of how Cersei Lannister died on Game of Thrones? Neither was the woman who portrayed her, Lena Headey. The British actress, who starred as Game of Thrones's villainous queen for eight seasons, recently opened up to The Guardian about her reservations with her character's ending. Like us, she was hoping for more.
"I will say I wanted a better death," she said when asked about what she'd bring up at a drunken sit-down with GoT showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
You may recall, perhaps begrudgingly, that Cersei met her end in Thrones's penultimate episode, during Daenerys Targaryen's attack on King's Landing. She and brother-lover Jaime Lannister were crushed by falling bricks in the crumbling Red Keep during the dragon queen's fiery siege, and younger brother Tyrion Lannister found their bodies amidst debris in the final episode, thus confirming their deaths.
Viewers felt let down by her anti-climactic exit. Whether or not you were a Cersei fan, she's been such an integral part of the show since Season 1. Sure, she got to spend her final moments with the man she loves, but did we think she really deserved to die under a ton of bricks? Why not have her perish in a fierce stand-off against her enemies?
Everybody watching how Cersei went out:
pic.twitter.com/Nkd5t70gKH- Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) May 13, 2019
Headey didn't exactly disclose how she wanted Cersei to go, but what Benioff and Weiss had written was not it.
"Obviously you dream of your death," she added to The Guardian. "You could go in any way on that show. So I was kind of gutted. But I just think they couldn’t have pleased everyone. No matter what they did, I think there was going to be some big comedown from the climb."
The actress is one of multiple GoT cast members who've aired grievances-some more openly than others-about the show's final season. Last month, she told Entertainment Weekly that she initially had "mixed" reactions to the script. "I wanted her to have some big piece or fight with somebody," she told the outlet.
However, the more she discussed the death scene with co-star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), the more she realized it was the "perfect end" for Cersei. "They came into the world together and now they leave together," Headey said.
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