The more you love something, the worse you tend to audition. If you don't really care about something, you kind of nail it.
Lena HeadeyI 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.
Lena HeadeyI've said from day one that I've got no problem with nudity. I've done it throughout my career.
Lena HeadeyGetting 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.
Lena HeadeyI 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.
Lena HeadeyAs a teenager I was clinically depressed. Although I had lots of friends, I found those years very difficult.
Lena HeadeyPeople do seem to think that I'm going to be some wicked witch, and then they're always surprised to find out I'm just a little clumsy nerd.
Lena HeadeyThere'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.
Lena HeadeyIt's a feeling without a lid, of what you would do, physically, verbally, to protect the one thing that is your greatest love.
Lena HeadeyI 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.
Lena HeadeyNothing 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.
Lena HeadeyI'm 40 next year and I'm very well aware that where I am now, it becomes a bit of a wilderness for actresses.
Lena HeadeyIt'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?'
Lena HeadeyI am very much a seat-of-the-pants actor. I will prepare when I have to. But I like being unprepared.
Lena HeadeyIt's always weird the thought of taking your clothes off in front of 20 people and then to have it projected in front of many more.
Lena HeadeyI look at someone like Kathryn Bigelow, and I have so much admiration. She's playing in the boy's sandpit, and winning.
Lena HeadeySince 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.
Lena HeadeyI love being physical, but I am extreme either way. I can be superfit. And then I can be really lazy and ignore everything.
Lena HeadeyWith 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.
Lena HeadeyHaving the tattoo itself is not really for the end result for me. I like having them done.
Lena HeadeyI'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?
Lena HeadeyThat 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?'
Lena HeadeyThere 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.
Lena HeadeyI'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.
Lena HeadeyThere'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.
Lena Headey