There have been quite a few cringe worthy moments on Game of Thrones throughout its five seasons. One of those being Cercei’s “walk of shame” from the season five finale, which lasted for a disturbing six minutes on-screen.
What fans did not realize however, was that Lena Headey, who plays Cercei, actually used a body double for the nude scene.
A little recap; the Lannister Queen Mother had to walk all throughout King’s Landing to the Red Keep to atone for her incestuous sins and adultery, as demanded by the High Sparrow and his religious cult. As she did so, she was stripped naked, and the crowds threw food, sewage, and screamed at her; noteworthy was the priestess who kept chanting, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” behind her the entire six minutes. When she finally reaches the end, she can barely walk, and we see her character completely broken and vulnerable.
As Headey performed those jaw dropping scenes, her body double, Rebecca Van Cleave, accompanied her. During the three day shoot, Van Cleave performed the scene completely naked while Headey wore a beige shift. The editors used CGI to combine both shots into one.
Cleave stated about the experience,
“It was one of the scariest, most wonderful, most gratifying experiences I could have imagined, 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.”
Headey used a body double for the scene for a few separate reasons, one of which being that she was pregnant during filming.
Headey told EW regarding filming the nude scene, “If somebody is brave enough to do this, I applaud it.”
The pair got through the scene as ‘one body’ by delving into what Cercei was feeling at each moment of the walk.
Van Cleave said,
“Lena was so good about walking beside me and guiding me into what Cersei was thinking and the movements. We were playing tag team—‘You’re it!’—and trying to make light of the fact we’re all covered in everything and going through this together…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.”
The CGI for that particular scene must have been very difficult to pull off for the editing team. Did you notice anything they might have missed in the finale?
Image via ‘HBO’
