Byatt, and as the wife of a law-abiding art framer dying of leukemia in the thriller Ripley's Game, adapted from the 1974 novel of the same name. In 2002, she appeared as a mousey Victorian lesbian artist with Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart in the mystery drama Possession, based on the 1990 novel of the same name by British author A. While the film was warmly received, ViewLondon remarked: "The only disappointment is Lena Headey, who, despite being fantastically sexy (she's given both a nude scene and a 'dressed as a prostitute' scene), smirks her way through the entire film, even at the most inappropriate moments". In 2001's comedy The Parole Officer, Headey took on the role of a police officer, alongside Steve Coogan in his first film role. In 2000, Headey played a newly promoted lawyer with no apparent emotional attachments in the romantic comedy Aberdeen, receiving the Silver Iris Award for Best Actress at the 2001 Brussels European Film Festival, and also starred as a troubled college student in the psychological drama Gossip, with Kate Hudson. The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. She was then cast in the drama Onegin (1999), a film based on the 19th-century Russian novel Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, in which she portrayed the fiancée of an aspiring poet and appeared with Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler.
She appeared opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the 1997 romantic drama Mrs Dalloway, portraying the closest friend of a housewife, who is now wife of a self-made millionnaire and mother of five. James Berardinelli praised the cast's "solid performances" as part of a positive critical reception, and the film found moderate commercial success in theaters. Headey played Kitty Brydon, the childhood friend and romantic interest of Mowgli, in Disney's The Jungle Book (1994).
In 1996 she featured as Collette in Kay Mellor's Band of Gold TV series, before starring in Kavanagh QC in 1997 playing the role of Natasha Jackson. Her career continued to grow in England throughout the decade, and she got larger parts in bigger motion pictures. She appeared in the hit TV show Soldier Soldier with Robson and Jerome. She also had a small role in the critically acclaimed 1993 drama film The Remains of the Day, which received eight Academy Awards nominations. She eventually obtained a supporting role in the drama Waterland (1992), in which she had the opportunity to work with actors who had been in the business several years before her.
Career Beginnings (1992–2004) Īt the age of 17, Headey performed in a one-off show and afterwards a casting agent took a photo and asked her to audition. Headey had her first experience of acting when she was a pupil at Shelley College she was noticed at age 17, when performing in a school production at the Royal National Theatre, and was picked for a role in the 1992 film Waterland. When she was five, her family returned to England, initially settling in Somerset. Her father, a police officer from Yorkshire, was stationed in Hamilton at the time in the Bermuda Police Service. Lena Kathren Headey was born in Hamilton on the island of Bermuda on 3 October 1973, the daughter of English parents Sue and John Headey.
She provided voices for the role-playing video game Risen (2009) and the video game tie-in film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016), as well as the animated series Danger Mouse (2015–2017) and Trollhunters (2017–2018), and puppet-animated series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019). Outside of film, Headey starred as Sarah Connor in the science fiction television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009) and had a recurring role as Amelia Hughes in the animated web series Infinity Train (2019–2021). Her other film credits include The Remains of the Day (1993), The Jungle Book (1994), Mrs Dalloway (1997), Ripley's Game (2002), Imagine Me & You (2005), Dredd (2012), The Purge (2013), 300: Rise of an Empire (2014), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), and Fighting with My Family (2019). She continued to work steadily in British and American films and on television, before gaining further recognition with her lead performances in the films The Brothers Grimm (2005) and 300 (2007). Headey made her film debut in the mystery drama Waterland (1992). She gained international recognition and acclaim for her portrayal of Cersei Lannister on the HBO epic fantasy drama series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which she received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Lena Kathren Headey ( / ˈ l iː n ə ˈ h iː d i/ LEE-nə HEE-dee born 3 October 1973) is a British actress.