Lena Headey gave a wide-ranging interview to The Telegraph and spoke about her experiences in Hollywood with nudity and predatory men. The Emmy nominee for “Game of Thrones” accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment in 2017, alleging that he made suggestive comments to her at the Venice Film Festival when they were promoting “The Brothers Grimm.” Years later, Weinstein allegedly invited Headey to his hotel to show him a script.

“We walked to the elevator and the energy changed,” Headey once explained of the encounter. “My whole body went on high alert. The elevator was going up and I said to Harvey, ‘I’m not interested in anything but work, please don’t think I came in here for any other reason, nothing’s going to happen.’ I don’t know what prompted me to speak at that moment, just that I had such a strong ‘don’t come near me’ feeling.”

Speaking to The Telegraph, Headey said: “The strange protection we offer predatory men in the business because of the disproportionate power they wield compared to the need vulnerable actresses have to work to put food on the table to get the job makes me very angry. A job can be completely ruined by one person who, for whatever reason, is allowed to get away with it. It was only when the #MeToo movement broke out. [in 2017] that we realized – oh, this is everywhere… I think most of the young women I talk to now in this business are very smart. The attitude today is: ‘I’m not going to do that.’”

It took a while for Headey to learn that she could hold her own on film and television sets. She noted that when she started out as an actress “there was this rite of passage that all young actresses had to go through, which usually involved making out and falling in love, having sex, and showing your tits. They called them the naïve parts, to make it sound better.”

“But I kept going,” Headey said. “I didn’t go to drama school, so I would come on set and say, ‘Oh my God, I have a job.’ And when those moments came, I don’t think I even questioned that I should be safe. Instead, I would go home and cry, or think, ‘Oh, that seemed strange and too familiar.’ Now I look back and feel, ‘Hmm, that was hard.’

“Game of Thrones” was famous for its sex and nudity scenes, which many critics often considered gratuitous. Cast member Gemma Whelan once said that filming these scenes was “a manic mess,” while Emilia Clarke admitted to crying after filming certain sex scenes. “Thrones” was filmed before intimacy coordinators became a standard job on productions. Headey was no ingénue when she got “Thrones,” so she was able to hold her own more.

“At that point I had already gone through a difficult time,” the actor told The Telegraph. “I could hold my own. I’m not saying those actresses couldn’t, but they were much younger and more vulnerable, and had much less experience of being in front of people and the camera and acting. Whereas I was at an age where I would just talk and dispel anything uncomfortable with idiocy.”

And yet, Headey found herself in the middle of backlash when she decided to use a body double in season five of “Game of Thrones” during her character’s naked walk of shame. When it was revealed that a body double and some CGI was used for the nude scene, some “Thrones” fans dissed it on social media.

“I was very surprised by the anger, the idea that I had misled the audience,” Headey said, recalling the outrage. “But at that time everyone knew [the cast]It was crazy to just go anywhere and I was with 3,000 extras. Acting is a pleasure but it requires a lot from you. I wouldn’t have been able to do the emotional part of the job; “I would have been in full defensive mode.”

Headey told Entertainment Weekly at the time that “some people thought I was less of an actress because I didn’t have my boobs out. It was really a bit of a shock. I’ve done nudity. I’m not averse to it. But I know I’m a very emotional actor and that motivates me a lot. To do my job, I allow myself to be really vulnerable. I don’t know any other way to do my job. Things really get to me. And the idea of being naked for three days and trying to contain her the way she would be, I think I would feel very angry. I didn’t want to be angry. I don’t think Cersei was angry. I did what I thought she would do, emotionally.

Head to The Telegraph website to read Headey’s interview in full.