Lena Headey Dissects Cersei’s ‘Greatest Moment of Triumph’ From Game of Thrones

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the sixth season of Game of Thrones.

Last night’s season six finale of Game of Thrones effectively cleared the playing board, wiping out entire storylines, subplots and families, all while putting the major pieces into play for the upcoming seventh season.

For Cersei Lannister — now Queen of the Seven Kingdoms — it was a night of both complete failure and absolute success. On one hand: the loss of her last child. On the other: she finally sits atop the Iron Throne, after seasons of scheming and fighting just to get her voice heard. Actress Lena Headey called it Cersei’s “greatest moment of triumph” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “She gets rid of all her enemies, that she knows of anyway. Then there’s that moment where she goes to see dead Tommen and she thinks, ‘Ah. Well. I’ll [take the crown].’ It’s so wrong,” Headey said. Cersei also gets to partake in a bit of wine-boarding of her former jailor, Septa Unella, a scene that is both “filthy” and strangely satisfying for viewers and the character alike.

“The scene was meant to be worse, but they couldn’t do it. This is like the tame version,” she said. Which begs the question: what could possibly be worse than being offered up as the plaything of The Mountain?

Of course, there were other major moments in store for Cersei last night. Headey was “really shocked” when she read the script and discovered that Cersei would actually ascend to the throne. But she doesn’t think Cersei’s reign is destined to last very long at all.

“Surely not! Not a chance in hell. It’s a moment of punctuation in the madness,” she said. So is she prepared to face her death? Headey thinks it will come at the hands of Arya or Tyrion, both of whom are now within striking distance of King’s Landing.

“I’ve always said that when it happens, as long as it’s kinda glorious and gory and it’s by the right person…”

Glorious and gory? Sounds like Headey’s on the right show to meet just that kind of sticky end.