Top 94 Quotes & Sayings by Lena Headey

Cersei in 'Game of Thrones' is quite solid and stiff.

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

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.

It's amazing the things that you cry at. I cry when I smell my son's hair in the morning. We have a moment of peace and I'll be like, 'Ahhhh! How can you love this much?'

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

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's a feeling without a lid, of what you would do, physically, verbally, to protect the one thing that is your greatest love.

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.

I carry about eight lip balms: Burt's Bees, Rosebud Salve, Eos.

I drink a lot of coffee.

I was never one of the cool kids who read '2000 AD.'

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.

Nothing's ever allowed to just be entertaining. We have to talk about it.

I almost never get recognised in the street.

I usually bring along a bottle of kombucha, thinking, 'This will be really good for me.' But I never actually drink it. The fermented mushroom-y flavor is too intense for me.

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

A lady of a certain age must keep her top on. That's what I feel.

I do what I do; I can't control who thinks what.

I'm small but quite tough. When incensed, I can swing a punch.

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

I've said from day one that I've got no problem with nudity. I've done it throughout my career.

I think I look slightly like a horse. Hand on heart, I think I'm pretty average.

'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.

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?'

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.

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.

I could quite happily run a florist or a bake shop.

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?'

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 parlour, I think, 'Maybe just a tiny one.'

I have a scary side of me.

For me, horror movies are a real escape.

As a teenager I was clinically depressed. Although I had lots of friends, I found those years very difficult.

I'm sad I'm not in 'The Purge 2.'

I don't think you should feel guilty about pleasure. Defeats the purpose.

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.'

I urge everyone - men, boys, women and girls - to join me in standing up for girls' rights with Plan U.K.

There is always that thought that you might get stuck with a character. But there's always the notion that every character is always evolving.

'Dredd' was a weird little out-of-the-blue thing for me.

I'd love to do a comedy. Umm, I don't know when that will happen - maybe when I'm, like, 80 or something. But yeah, I'd love to. I'm just waiting for the right person to see my hilarious nature and offer me a comedy.

People who never get anxious always amaze me. The world could be breaking up, and they're saying, 'Everything's fine!'

I don't want to be owned by anyone.

There's no snobbery in me.

Really, I still just think of myself as a Northerner, ultimately. It's in my DNA. I'll always have those Northern qualities. We can be mischievous. We can be bold.

I always have scarves handy; they're my indulgence. I buy them at an L.A. shop called Lost & Found. I'll spray one with loads of my Byredo Gypsy Water perfume, put it on and be like, 'Ah, this feels good.'

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.

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.

I worked in Tesco's staff canteen because I fancied a boy on the tills. I served him his lunch in a hairnet and tan tights. Not just that, of course - I had a lovely white onesie.

If I was into politics, I would be rich.

I'd like to play Walter White, but I guess that's been done.

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

I'd love to have played Joan of Arc. That would have been amazing.

Getting older and having kids, you learn how to become less serious about it all.

That scene in 'The Purge' where my kids, Mary's kids, are in danger was really crazy for me, because I suddenly... I have my methods as an actor, so I went to the place of 'If somebody came near my children, with bad intent?'

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

There seems to be great roles for women, and it's not necessarily - you don't have to be young women. Suddenly, we're realizing that, generally, women are interesting, and they can also be weird and crazy and mean.

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.

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.

I find 'Chainsaw' to be a very relaxing film.

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

I like to keep my personal life private.