Why ‘Game Of Thrones’ Lena Headey Needed Nude Body Double Rebecca Van Cleave [Spoilers]

Actress Rebecca Van Cleave (pictured above) was recently outed as Lena Headey’s body double during the traumatic naked walk of shame for Cersei Lannister, Headey’s character on Game of Thrones. The use of body doubles is usually kept on the down-low, but since the U.K. media leaked the information, some fans have criticized Headey for not fully committing to the performance.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Van Cleave disagrees.

“I personally don’t agree with anybody who says having a body double detracts from the scene. Lena put her heart and soul into that scene. It should all be about the finished product, not about whose body was where and whose head was where.”

Spoilers: for those who have not seen the scene, Cersei Lannister is forced to walk through the streets of King’s Landing naked, while she’s pelted and harassed by townspeople for the sins of incest and adultery.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Lena said that there were several reasons she chose to use a body double; first of all, she wanted to concentrate on Cersei’s emotions.

The Game of Thrones star was also pregnant with her second child. It’s not clear how far along she was during the shooting, but that would have definitely caused some confusion for the fans.

Of course, there are more obvious reasons not to want to be filmed walking through Game of Thrones’ medieval streets naked while hundreds of townspeople hurl rotten food and raw sewage.

As Headey explained, “if somebody is brave enough to do this, I applaud it.”

Game of Thrones players (especially actresses) already have enormous challenges because of their roles, from Maisie Williams’ (Arya Stark) attracting cyberbullies at a young age to Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell) being so disturbed by one particular scene she made the creators rewrite it.

Whatever Headey’s reasons, Rebecca Van Cleave was more than happy to take on the unusual role — as would have many other women. Around 1,000 actresses applied. Only seven finalists were flown out to Belfast to meet the producers, and Van Cleave managed to impress them enough to earn the position.

Now she hopes her Game of Thrones appearance, especially now that it has media attention, will land her another big gig — like one that will involve her head.

“It’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but also the best experience of my life,” she says. “And I hope the next thing I do will have my head in it!”

ET explained that Rebecca Van Cleave first performed the scene naked, then Headey did the same in a beige shift. Game of Thrones’ editors then combined the two shots using CGI (have fun trying to find any flaws).

Of course, no one should be all that sad for Van Cleave having to do the dirty work. She told Entertainment Weekly it was one of the “most wonderful” experiences she could have imagined.

“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.”

Thanks to the media leak, not only was Rebecca Van Cleave’s experience amazing, it landed her quite a bit of attention.

[Image via Rebecca Van Cleave/Twitter]