Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
As it’s has been revealed time and time again, TV’s biggest actresses have no shortage of industry sexism horror stories. GLOW‘s Alison Brie recently recounted the time she was asked to audition topless for Entourage, and Shameless star Emmy Rossum shared her own audition war story of having been questioned about whether she’d become “fat” and if she’d don a bikini to prove it. If these stories weren’t enough to make you nauseous, Game of Thrones‘ own Cersei (Lena Headey) is now sharing her own.
In a Net-A-Porter cover story (in which she’s interviewed by co-star Maisie Williams) published this month, the two first gabbed about developments on Game of Thrones and their theories about the future, but Headey soon got frank about the sexism she’d experienced over the years while auditioning. When asked by Williams what it was like to be a woman in the entertainment industry, Headey initially recounted the difference in treatment on a very basic level – communication:
I was talking about this with another actress, and I said, “Do you find that you have to say the same things seven times, whereas a man says it once and everyone listens?” Male counterparts can say the same thing [I just did] and everyone’s like, “Oh, that’s a great idea,” and I’m like, “I just said that 19 times but you chose not to listen or take it on board.”
Headey’s grievances – and attempts to instill wisdom in young Williams – came to a head when she remembered what auditioning had been like when she was an up-and-coming actress and the disturbing revelations she’d had in the process:
I’m happier now I’m older, playing women who aren’t expected to be beautiful. That pressure has gone for me. [Male] actors can be ‘interesting’, but there’s a real pressure on women to be beautiful and skinny. When I was in my twenties, and doing a lot of audition tapes in the States, a casting director told me: “The men take these tapes home and watch them and say, ‘Who would you f***?’” I’ve never played the game of going in [to auditions] and flirting; I’ve never done it.
When Williams asked her if she’d ever lost a job because she didn’t want to flirt, Headey admitted that was probably true, but maintained that she was “very happy” she stood her ground. Headey, ever the trooper, also got real about the postpartum depression she’d endured when she first started playing Cersei, calling it a “weird time”.
On a happier note, at least it seems like the Game of Thrones casting team didn’t ask anyone to read sides in a bikini.
