Lena Headey opened up recently about the harrowing scene her character had to endure in Sunday night’s season finale of Game Of Thrones, saying that while it wasn’t hard to get into Cersei’s headspace, she doesn’t feel the Queen Regent deserved it.
The scene (caution: spoilers) in question left fans of the show divided, as Cersei has infuriated just about all of us at some point. Her scheming ways, however, have led to her being one of those characters everyone loves to hate, and no matter how bitchy she can be, she still has her fans. The walk of shame she had to complete as penance for her incest confession–complete with a nun shouting “Shame! Shame” while ringing a bell behind her the entire time–was torturous to watch as the minutes ticked by. Cersei’s bloodied feet on the cobblestones, her nude body the target of anything the onlookers could find to throw…it was hard to watch, and Headey says she doesn’t think anyone deserves that treatment.
“It’s not hard when people are screaming at you and you look like s–t and you’re being f–king humiliated to figure out how that would feel. There’s a part of you that’s f–king terrified. I can’t even imagine people wanting your blood. Cersei has done wrong, but she doesn’t really deserve this,” Headey told Entertainment Weekly. “I don’t think anyone deserves that treatment. She’s been beaten and starved and humiliated. She thinks when she comes out and confesses that this is it—even when she’s on her knees confessing to the High Sparrow, she’s partly lying. She thinks she’s good to go. She has no idea what’s coming when she walks out to the steps, or that they’re going to shave her hair off like Aslan.”
It’s unclear at this point what fate awaits Cersei, as she will likely still face action from the High Sparrow and his court for her wrongdoings. However, Headey’s character did tell one of the nuns that her face would be the last the woman would ever see, so things might get bloody next season when it’s time for retribution.