Game of Thrones star Lena Headey has revealed she’s been offered fewer acting roles in recent years – with a nominal amount of projects featuring characters over the age of 35.
The 52-year-old actor has been in the industry for decades, starring in the likes of Zack Snyder’s historical action film 300 and the 2007 version of St Trinian’s, before playing the formidable Cersei Lannister in all eight series of Game of Thrones.
But in a new interview, Headey explained that her agent has told her they have a shortage of parts to put her forward for right now.
She told Radio Times on Monday (20 July): “Last year my agent said, ‘Usually I would have around 35 projects to offer you. Now I have five. And of the five, each has only one female character over 35. And three of them have already gone to famous people, and the other one is French.
“So, that’s about one or two possible jobs in 12 months. And every other actress of the same age is waiting for the same thing.”
That constitutes a 94 per cent drop in available work if Headey is offered two projects this year, and a drop of 97 per cent if it’s only one.
Headey has taken matters into her own hands by writing, directing and starring in Intimacy, a new comedy drama for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
The series sees Headey play intimacy co-ordinator Liza Simmons, who is working on a new film adaptation of the notoriously racy Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Reflecting on getting older and carving a new lane for herself, Headey added: “It’s a shift, becoming a new version of yourself. But I love writing and pushing to direct. That’s my goal.
“I want to be like [French film-maker] Agnès Varda in my 60s and 70s, directing great films with great people.”
Headey’s star turn as Lannister matriarch Cersei led to multiple award nominations and wins, including nods in the Emmys’ outstanding supporting actress category and the Golden Globes’ best supporting actress.
However, the Bermuda-born actress – who grew up in Somerset – previously admitted that playing Cersei until 2019 actually made her career “harder”.
“Thrones was such a surprise,” she said in 2023. “But there was no part of me that went, ‘Oh, it’s done now. Life’s going to be easy.
“It opened doors, it made certain things easier. It also made things feel harder because you think, ‘What do I do?’”
Since GoT came to its controversial end, Headey has appeared in films such as Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) and 9 Bullets (2022), and landed small screen roles in HBO drama White House Plumbers (2023) and science fiction series Beacon 23 (2024).
