Game of Thrones star Lena Headey says refusing sex with Harvey Weinstein hurt her career for a decade
Game of Thrones star Lena Headey says that refusing to have sex with shamed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein hindered her career for a decade.
"After he was discovered to be a slimeball, on a grander scale than me just knowing it, I did start thinking, 'F***, maybe because I didn't shag him, that's impacted a decade of my working life'," the actress told The Times' Culture section:
"Because I did two jobs for Miramax [the film company founded by Weinstein] before those incidents, and after that there was nothing."
Headey accused Weinstein of sexual harassment on Twitter in 2017 when she detailed an encounter with the disgraced producer which left her in tears.
Weinstein has previously denied any wrongdoing.
The actress's career took off again in 2011, when she was cast as Cersei Lannister in the hit HBO fantasy drama, which will conclude with series eight in April.
Headey also reflected that the trajectory of the show's female characters from brutalised and subjugated women into leading females is a reaction to the changes that have happened within the industry, prompted by the MeToo movement.
"It does mirror what is going on [in the real world]," she ruminated. "We started somewhere and now we're at a place there isn't any going back from. It's moving forward.
"For me, the thought of younger actresses not having to deal with predatory idiots . . . I mean, there are always chances, but having an easier path and it being about who is best for the role, rather than who you want to take for dinner, is exciting."
And while the 45-year-old star remained tight-lipped on the final six episodes she admits it was an emotional goodbye when she completed her final scene.
"I was half sleeping, half dreaming, thinking it'd be fine," she recalled. "'It's over. Whatever!' Everyone kept saying how much they were going to miss it and I thought, 'Really? Not me.'
"Then I did my last scene, and Dave and Dan [David Benioff and DB Weiss, who adapted George RR Martin’s novels] made a lovely, funny, slightly insulting speech, and I said something, then got in the car and burst into tears."
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