Lena Headey
☼ Born on 3 December 1973, in Hamilton, Bermuda
Biography
Lena Headey is a Bermudian-British actress. Headey is best known for her role as "Cersei Lannister" in Game of Thrones (2011) (2011-2019) and The Brothers Grimm (2005), Possession (2002), and The Remains of the Day (1993). Headey stars as "Queen Gorgo," a heroic Spartan woman in the period film, 300 (2006), by director Zack Snyder.
Headey was born in Hamilton, Bermuda, to British parents Sue and John Headey. Her father, a Yorkshire police cadet, was stationed in the Bermuda Police Service. She was raised there until age five, when her family returned to England. She was brought up in Yorkshire before moving to London in her teens. Headey had not gone to drama school before she became an actress. At the age of seventeen, Headey's performance in a one-off show in the company of six school friends caught the attention of a casting agent, who took a photo and asked her to audition. Eventually, Headey was cast in Waterland (1992), which became her big-screen debut. She honed her natural acting talent while filming and also took archery classes and horse training. She also took boxing classes in clubs in south London, where a former boxer had been teaching her to spar. During her film career, spanning over 15 years, Headey has shown her range in a variety of roles, playing characters from Amazon-type warriors and action-minded women in The Cave (2005) and The Brothers Grimm (2005), to a lesbian florist in Imagine Me & You (2005).
Headey's film career has taken her all over the world.
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She was in India for the filming of The Jungle Book (1994), then in St. Petersburg, Russia, for filming Onegin (1999), and in Norway for filming of Aberdeen (2000). In 2005 Headey was filming in Romania and in Mexico, then spent four months in Prague, Czech Republic, where a forest was designed and built for filming The Brothers Grimm (2005), with Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. During 2006 Headey was in Canada for the filming of 300 (2006), then went to locations in Bulgaria for shooting The Contractor (2007), and Germany and in Czech Republic for the filming of The Red Baron (2008).
She also played Gina McVey in the horror thriller The Broken (2008), and Elizabeth in Tell Tale (2009). In addition to her film-work, Heady appeared as Sarah Connor in a TV spin-off of the popular "Terminator" film franchise, the FOX's television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008).
Outside of her acting profession, Headey continued taking boxing lessons in London. She is a vegetarian and also remains loyal to yoga, which she discovered during her work in India. She has never been back to her birthplace in Bermuda; she shares her time between her homes in London, England, and Los Angeles, California.
In the role of actor
Fighting with My Family (21/02/2019)
The story of WWE superstar Paige and her wrestling family in England is told in Fighting with My Family. Saraya Knight (Florence Pugh) has been wrestling since the age of 13 for her family’s wrestling promotion World Association of Wrestling in Norwich, England, which is run by her father Ricky (Nick Frost) and mother Julia (Lena Headey) and […]
300: Rise of an Empire (09/03/2014)
The battle between the Greeks and Persians continues with 300: Rise of an Empire. While the 300 Spartans are off fighting against the “God king” Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), an army of Athenian warriors, lead by Themistokles (Sullivan Stapleton), fights a water-bound battle against Greek-born Persian naval officer Artemisia (Eva Green). Themistokles has a personal burden […]
Dredd 3D (07/09/2012)
Back in 1995, there was an adaptation of the Judge Dredd comics that starred Sylvester Stallone and audiences generally frowned upon Stallone’s interpretation of the character, namely in the way he quickly got rid of Dredd’s trademark helmet. Well, it’s 17 years later and a new reboot has surfaced, which was reportedly supposed to be closer to […]
300 (11/03/2007)
It’s late, I’m tired, I’ll make this brief. I thought 300 was not only visually stunning, but it had a pretty decent story too. Also, even though it was hyperviolent, the violence was made to look similar to what it would look in the pages on a comic book (since, of course, the film is […]