Lena Headey Quotes

1. (on depression) As an adult, the depression has come into my life now and again, but now I know what it is: a very unwelcome old friend who occasionally goes "Hey!" and just ruins your (bloody) party.


2. (about cosmetic surgery) When I'm 55 I plan to have a facelift, get a great pair of breasts and start wearing Vivienne Westwood. I think that would be kind of cool.

3. There is something in the act of having tattoos done that I love. It can be quite addictive. I've got a few on my back because my friend is an artist, and a few on my arms. Every time I pass a tattoo parlor, I think: "Maybe just a tiny one."

4. (on depression) I'd come home from school every day and put on my records - I'm a huge music fan. And I remember one day when I didn't find any joy from my music. It was the weirdest feeling: putting on the records, and waiting. I thought I was going mad.

5. (being offered Botox treatment by a saleswoman at a pre-Oscars party) When I told her I didn't want to get my lines erased because I was an actress and needed to be able to make facial expressions, she looked at me as if I'd just sworn at her grandmother. Honestly, though, if someone told me to stick a needle in my face, I just couldn't. In LA there is pressure to look good; there's no point denying it. When producers look at you, they are assessing you. I had to do a lot of training for the Sarah Connor role and I lost all my body fat. It's so frightening seeing the number of skinny women out here.

6. I'm dreadful at schmoozing at Hollywood parties; I find them so boring. You have to listen to these awful stories - I mean, what do you say?

7. (on depression) I just found those teenage years very difficult. Looking back, it was probably the first time I was going through depression, but, since no one talked about it then, and I couldn't explain myself to anybody, I didn't know what else to do.

8. (on Piper Perabo) I genuinely really love Piper, I think she's bright, funny and smart. We definitely got on. I think that by being thrown together sort of made our friendship. She left (the set of The Cave (2005)) two weeks before me. That was the longest two weeks ever! I remember crying! I was like "Oh no, don't leave me!" 

9. (on depression) I was diagnosed when I was 15, and it comes and goes. I may suffer from it once or twice a year, but I now recognize it and deal with it. I don't use medication because I'm so worried about becoming dependent on it, but I can understand people who do, because you go through the most horrendous feelings of isolation.



10. I'm sort of like a T. rex in the world of female actresses. Every time a job is finished, I look at my car and think: "Could I live in it?"

11. But I don't necessarily equate success with being a huge Hollywood star. To remain quite anonymous is the biggest gift ever. I would hate to have my picture taken when I go to the shop for milk. I find Hollywood a really trick place. I never wanted to live there. For me, the cheaper jobs with a small intimate crew are far more rewarding.

12. I stay in London. London is my home. I'm not averse to being here but I don't know if I can be here (LA) for a long time.



13. (about the obsession with weight in the movie business) You're surrounded by it out there, you really are. It's all hyped, whereas here (UK) it's more relaxed. I'm just glad I'm not a size zero! I'm about a size 8.

14. There's a perceived inverse relation between looks and talent. Look at Charlize Theron - she made herself ugly for "Monster" and suddenly everyone said "she's a genius." It shouldn't be like that.

15. Shooting guns is not something I would do in my spare time. I really don't understand why Americans can purchase guns so easily and why they use them for sporting purposes.

16. I never had plans to be a huge movie star; I just want to keep working. I've been advised to live here, but I like London. I've no great desire to make tons of money, and I'm sure that I've missed out on roles because I don't play the game.

17. I am very much a seat-of-the-pants actor. I will prepare when I have to. But I like being unprepared.

18. I think it's hard to go and love somewhere like L.A. where there's not a community you can walk around in like London or New York. It's quite an isolated place I feel.

19. I hadn't gone to drama school. I was lucky and just fell into it.

20. Since being quite young, I've had a very strong sense of independence and survival. As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally.



21. I played Sinead Cusack as a young woman. They gave her big teeth to match mine. Big teeth and a hairy lip - ooh, I'm a sex symbol! They'll have me on the cover of FHM next.

22. I have an internal protectiveness where it's like, if it comes to just me, as frightened as I am of losing someone I love or things going sour or simply being alone, there is a dark place in my brain where I'm like, It could happen and I'm okay, I'm prepared.

23. (about being recognized) I just hope I can still get away with...I just don't ever want to be photographed. I mean, I hate that. It's an invasion of privacy.



24. Working in film lets me travel, which is one of my passions. I like to visit remote places and see real people.

25. There's nothing more exciting for an actor than a chance to lose, to be someone who has lost - especially if it's someone who starts off with a veneer of control. To be broken is wonderful.

26. You can't take anything for granted for a second otherwise you trip up. More than anything, I believe life is all about timing. I know certainly every situation in my life has been like "why now?" and it's a test or a beautiful moment. That's why life is so gorgeous.

27. Sometimes it's a bizarre, fairly cold, and horrifying thing to be a parent.

28. We've all had that moment where you look into someone's eyes and there's some kind of recognition there, whether you act on it or not.

29. I've worked for 15 years without being recognized or known pretty much anywhere. I can go anywhere, and for that to change terrifies me. I love my life; I love my anonymity. I love doing what I do, but I like being able to be trashed at parties and nobody's going: "Look at her! Look at her with watercress in her teeth."

30. I look at someone like Kathryn Bigelow, and I have so much admiration. She's playing in the boy's sandpit, and winning.


31. I just love London. And in big cities you can stay anonymous, and I do not say that because I am famous. You just do not have to bump into people you do not want to see. You can just be by yourself.

32. It may be about always running from something. It's quite cathartic. You can play complete bastards and get away with it. You can't do that in real life. It allows me to behave terribly.

33. I'm actually pretty shy, it's almost painful sometimes.

34. I feel like my career has been like an elastic; I've almost had the big breakthrough role so many times and then been back to where I started. I've given up thinking: "This is it," as it makes you dizzy, so I'm just going to do what I do and if things happen then they happen."

35. With fantasy and sci-fi, it's based in a real fandom. You're presenting to experts, and their source material is really important to them. They'll come up and ask: "so when you turned your head slightly in that scene, what were you thinking?"

36. For every film I've always relied on an ability to access real feelings. I don't know any other way. That's probably why some directors think I'm too intense.

37. I hate being looked at. Can't stand it. I know, I know - I picked the wrong career. I should have been a doctor. If you play certain parts you have this nice face painted on you, and then you have feel as if you have a responsibility to this idea of being beautiful. I hate that about our business. It shouldn't inform what you do. But there's a perceived inverse relation between looks and talent.

38. But every time I hate what I'm doing, every time the experience is ugly, then I'll read something new and think: "I HAVE to do this!"



39. Getting the role in "300" saved me. I'd been out of work for 11 months after "The Brothers Grimm." Once the film came out and didn't do so well, the director Terry Gilliam blamed me for absolutely everything. It was pretty appalling, and I had started to wonder if I'd ever get another job again when I was asked to audition for "300."

40. Everything, I am quite eclectic. I sometimes take home a really big blockbuster and I am usually disappointed, and then I think why did I do it again? At the moment there is a ton of stuff that I want to see at the theatre. But the independent cinemas disappear more and more, which is kind of disappointing. There are only these large complexes left in London.


41. I love being physical, but I am extreme either way. I can be super fit. And then I can be really lazy and ignore everything.

42. I went out with a friend to a lesbian bar, and I flirted my (butt) off. It was such a great night. It was so freeing and such fun. I noticed that everyone there was so open and kind. There are no boundaries.

43. (about suicidal thoughts) Well, I don't want to be dramatic because it's very mild for me but, when the depression comes, it is very intense and you can't see beyond it. I guess there have been thoughts in my head, but not enough to do anything about them.

44. "The Brothers Grimm" is a work of fantasy by one of the true visionary filmmakers working today, whereas "The Cave" is just one big silly, scary action movie.

45. The cinema for me is such a therapy. Even a silly movie - the lights go down and for that hour and a half you're kind of lost. I love that. And to give people that experience - movies that move you, or make you laugh, or scare you, it's just such a joy.

46. It was just very noticeable how tight they were. They just enjoyed each other. They had a really cool friendship going on, and yeah, hung out 24/7.


47. The first five months were incredibly frustrating, depressing and frightening because I thought I was never going to work again. It's hard not to lose confidence.

48. I've got quite a big gay following. I played a lesbian prostitute in the TV series "Band Of Gold" but I think my following really grew when I played one in the film "Imagine Me & You," with Piper Perabo.

49. As a teenager I was clinically depressed. Although I had lots of friends, I found those years very difficult. I remember listening to the radio when suddenly the music made no sense at all. It was terrifying and I couldn't explain myself to anybody so I ran away to Birmingham with about £1.50. I put my poor mum through so much. One day I can be ecstatically up and the next I can feel this real blankness, a deadness almost, which is scary.

50. Because Prague has been a sort of filmmaking place for awhile now, and it's almost developed into a kind of small Hollywood. So you've got restaurants, you've got a social scene, it's accessible, and you can exist there in a sort of sane way. Bucharest is obviously still newly out of its regime, and it's very evident. And I'm a great traveler, and I've traveled to many places, and I love new cultures, I love people, I love the scenes of just what's happening on the streets…And I found I couldn't find anything in Bucharest to thrill me or make me feel anything other than "I just want to get out of here." It's just really sad…There are kids sleeping on every doorway, you know what I mean? That's what you pass every night.

51. European legends have sad endings.


52. I've never directed before, so I need to make sure that people know that I can. The movie that I've written "The Sophisticates" is a...small ensemble comedy and I hope it's charming and funny.

53. I think I cry when I'm angry. I let it go that way.

54. I was jealous the whole way through.

55. (about ex-boyfriend Jason Flemyng) We were together for a long time and we're still friends; we have a lot of respect for each other. At the time we split up, it was dreadful, but life moves on. Occasionally, we'll bump into each other because we both live in south London have mutual friends. He has a new girlfriend now. It's nice to see someone you loved being happy, and I say that from my heart.

56. It's a funny thing because most of this business has to do with profile and even if you go in and nail something - which happens rarely in the audition process for me personally - you walk out and find out it has been offered to somebody else and that's heartbreaking. And you wonder if you had attended a few more parties you might have gotten it.

57. (about ex-boyfriend Jason Flemyng) It was absolutely hideous. You leave everything you know. But I knew it was time for us to move on. He's incredibly happy with somebody else now and that's what I want.





58. Nothing I do is by design. It's always the result of a happy accident. I didn't have a career plan. It has just become the way it is. It's all good fun.

59. (on her husband) He's not an actor, he's a normal man. Well, he's not normal; he's Irish, but you know what I mean. We met at a friend's wedding and had a little dance together; it was pretty serious, right from the start.

60. Does our culture have a need for violence? I don't know. I guess it's a personal thing.

61. (on her husband) I've got to the stage of my life now where I'm ready for a solid base. I've lived a nomadic lifestyle for 15 years and it would be nice to have a home and some stability and normality. I'd love to start a family, too. I feel really ready and excited about the prospect.

62. I was obsessed with vampires when I was 13 or 14.

63. (on her husband) This is the most healthy, beautiful thing that has happened to me. It feels very hopeful. He's fantastic. He comes from a normal, working-class background which helps, his morals and ethics are pretty much the same as mine, and it's lovely too meet someone who shares an understanding of what's important in life. This doesn't feel like I have to work at it.


64. For me, horror movies are a real escape.

65. I'm 40 next year and I'm very well aware that where I am now, it becomes a bit of a wilderness for actresses.

66. Being lazy, I thought the first six months that I was out of work were great. But then slowly I started to wonder if I was every going to get another job and I began to doubt my own abilities. "The Brothers Grimm" (2005) was hell to shoot and a horrendous experience. The director didn't want me in the role (studio bosses overrode Gilliam's own choice of Samantha Morton); and let's just say he wasn't too subtle about showing his dislike for me. Once the film came out and didn't do so well, he blamed me for absolutely everything. It was pretty appalling, and it made me want to not work for a while. When I got the call to say I'd got the part in "300" (2006), I felt such an enormous wave of relief, I burst into tears.

67. "Lost Boys" is one of my all-time faves. I just thought it would be great to be a vampire. I remember this movie called "Once Bitten," which is about an '80s sort of power girl who became a vampire and was really, like, sexy. Hair like she was from "Dallas," shoulder pads, big earrings.





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