The body double for Lena Headey, who plays Cersei Lannister on HBO's Game of Thrones, talked to EW about what it was like to spend days filming that disturbing Walk of Shame from the season finale. The one where she walked naked through a raging mob that pelted her with garbage.
She loved it.
Rebecca Van Cleave, whose naked body was combined with Headey's head through special effects, called the three day experience "gratifying."
“It was one of the scariest, most wonderful, most gratifying experiences I could have imagined,” she told EW. “I never in a million years would have thought I would be in Dubrovnik surrounded by hundreds of extras and crew members throwing food at me, but it was amazing.”
There were reportedly 1,000 actresses who applied for the body double job, but Van Cleave was lucky enough to get the gig of walking nude through a crowd of screaming extras as they repeatedly shouted "whore" at her.
"The first time I took off the robe there was all this anticipation building up to it. But it’s such an emotional experience for Cersei, you almost check out of the fact that you’re nude. You’re so in touch with the scene and what you’re going for," she said. “It’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but also the best experience of my life. And I hope the next thing I do will have my head in it!”
As for Headey, who performed the scene by walking alongside Van Cleave while wearing a flesh-colored bodysuit, Van Cleave said people shouldn't discount her performance now that they know she had a body double.
“Lena put her heart and soul into that scene. It should all be about the finished product, not about whose body was where and and whose head was where.”
