Lena Headey, like some of her fans, doesn’t seem to be totally content with Cersei’s death on Game of Thrones.
Cersei Lannister (Headey) and her twin-brother-slash-estranged-lover, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), died in the controversial penultimate episode of the HBO fantasy-epic series Game of Thrones, as the Red Keep crumbled around them following a fiery King’s Landing rampage from Daenerys Targaryen’s drago, Drogon.
“I wanted a better death” for Cersei Lannister, the actress told The Guardian.
“I invested as a viewer and I have my favourite characters. And I’ve got a few of my own gripes. But I haven’t sat down drunkly with David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] yet,” she explained.
“Obviously you dream of your death,” Headey remarked. “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.”
She did say, though, that being on the program was “amazing,” and that “things end and you move on.”
Cersei’s fate has been discussed by Headey previously. She had “mixed” feelings over the tragedy in an interview with EW.com. She had hoped for a great fight or maybe a big set piece death, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized that the death was appropriate.
“It’s maybe the first time that Cersei has been at peace,” Headey says in that last moment as she stares at her brother, waiting for the end.
Headey’s remarks came weeks after the big-budget fantasy epic’s end, which split fans and fellow cast members. The final episode of the final series received the lowest rating in the show’s history.
Another actor unhappy with her fate? Maisie Williams. The young Game of Thrones actress who played Arya Stark wasn’t happy that she didn’t get to scratch Cersei’s name off her “Kill List”.
“I just wanted to be on set with Lena again, she’s good fun,” Williams, 22, said of Cersei, with whom Arya has had a feud since the first season of the show.
“And I wanted Arya to kill Cersei even if it means [Arya] dies too,” she continued. “Even up to the point when Cersei’s with Jaime I thought [while reading the script], ‘He’s going to whip off his face [and reveal its Arya]’ and they’re both going to die. I thought that’s what Arya’s drive has been.”
Conleth Hill recently said that in the show’s last episode, he was not amused by his character Varys.
Hill told Entertainment Weekly in May, “I took it very personally,” He went on to claim, however, that he gradually began to believe Vary’s death was “great.”