Lena Headey Quotations

I'm a tomboy. I used to get into a lot of fights. Don't know why - self-expression, I guess.

Maybe you just don't see your own beauty.

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.

I hate being looked at. Can't stand it. I know, I know - I picked the wrong career.

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

One day I can be ecstatically up, and the next, I can feel this real blankness, a deadness almost, which is scary.

I took up boxing as a fitness thing. I got obsessed, and I would go every day when I wasn't working. It's just an insane sport when you get into it.

'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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

For me, horror movies are a real escape.

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

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.

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

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,

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?'

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

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

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

If I was into politics, I would be rich.

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.'

He'd lift it up to look at you and talk to you, ... He was like a scary horse.

He'd knock over bits of the set because he couldn't really see, ... He had the 8-pound head on.

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.

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

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

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

I would love to work with Shane Meadows - great director.

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.

Some 'Terminator' fans are outraged that I'm playing Sarah Connor. They think I'm not muscly enough. To be honest, I'm a little tired of the comparisons to Linda Hamilton. I know she will always be the original Sarah Connor, but when people see what I bring to the role, they will look at her with new eyes.

One day I was in school, and the next I was acting opposite Jeremy Irons. That's how quickly it happened. I was in class and then working with Sir Anthony Hopkins.

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.

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

I've been working a long time, and mostly European films.

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.

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

I miss that London thing of walking outside and bumping into mates and going, 'Do you want to get a pint?'

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

I like to keep my personal life private.

I love the chance to train with someone like Mark Twight.

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

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.

I dont want to be owned by anyone.

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.

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.

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.

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

As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally.

Cersei in Game of Thrones is quite solid and stiff.

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

I'm just going to stay single forever. I could never live with anybody ever again.

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

I have a playlist of farts on my phone.

I almost never get recognised in the street.

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.

I do what I do; I cant control who thinks what.

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

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?'

Shooting guns is not something I would do in my spare time.

I carry about eight lip balms: Burts Bees, Rosebud Salve, Eos.

I enjoy what I do and it's a great way to live your life.

It'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.

The more you love something, the worse you tend to audition. If you don't really care about something, you kind of nail it.

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

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?

Having the tattoo itself is not really for the end result for me. I like having them done.

Freedom isn't free at all, that it comes with the highest of costs. The cost of blood.

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

It's not socially acceptable to be a complete and utter manipulative cow.

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

People 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.

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

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.