Lena Headey quotes:

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.

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 would love to work with Shane Meadows - great director.

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

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.

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 the chance to train with someone like Mark Twight.

Cersei in 'Game of Thrones' is quite solid and stiff.

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

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?'

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.

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

Maybe you just don't see your own beauty.

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

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?'

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

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.

I have a playlist of farts on my phone.

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

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.

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

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

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

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. They'll come up and ask: 'so when you turned your head slightly in that scene, what were you thinking?'

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

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.

I drink a lot of coffee.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 could quite happily run a florist or a bake shop.

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

For me, horror movies are a real escape.

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

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.'

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

I dont want to be owned by anyone.

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

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

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?'

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

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.

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 almost never get recognised in the street.