Lena Headey was playing a disgraced Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones at the end of season five. The once-powerful monarch had devolved into a helpless prisoner who had been publicly humiliated. Lannister was sentenced to a penance walk, which forced her to strip nude, have her hair shaved, and walk through the slums of town as horrified spectators screamed obscenities and hurled trash at her. In addition, a nun-like Silent Sister robotically rang a handbell and said, “Shame!” as she walked through town.

“Some people thought I was less of an actress because I didn’t get my tits out,” Headey told Entertainment Weekly, responding to fan criticisms over her use of a body double for the scenes. “You know what? It was really a bit shocking. I’ve done nudity. I’m not averse to it. But I know I’m a very emotional actor and I get really driven by that. In order to do my job, I allow myself to be really vulnerable.”

“I don’t know any other way to do my job. Things really affect me. And the thought of being naked for three days and trying to contain her in the way she would be I think I would feel very angry. I didn’t want to be angry. I don’t think Cersei would be angry. I did what I thought she would do, emotionally.”

“And wonderful Rebecca was able to contain herself and be naked. She found it very difficult, obviously. It’s not a natural thing to do. I film every year and I have kids and they know me now and [being naked in the scene] was just too much on top of that. So yeah, people that get it thought it was great. I didn’t phone it in; I was actually there for three days with Rebecca.”

“She’s even more self-preservatory,” the actress said, implying that the encounter was a major turning point for the character, albeit not necessarily in a step toward humility. “She can’t believe that happened to her, of all people. It’s fueled her desire for power and her desperation to prove that she’s somebody worth considering.”

Headey then addressed allegations that her choice to skip the scene was motivated by vanity. “People [assume] I picked Rebecca. Like I was in the casting and picked a hot body. Like I demanded to have a hot body,” she said. “In reality, I said, ‘If somebody will do this, I’ll have no choice about it. Whatever you decide.’ I had no judgment in that or desire to be involved. I just want to clear that up. Because as a woman, that drives me mad; the thought I’m like, ‘Nope! Nope!’ [and dismissing nude women] in a room. I genuinely wouldn’t. Because none of it is about vanity for me — none of it — otherwise I couldn’t do it. It would be a hindrance.”

“It just keeps getting better,” Headey remarked of the new series, which premieres next week. “It’s so juicy, and it’s so f****** dark, and so emotionally clever, in this landscape. It sounds so cheesy, but I’m really grateful to be part of something so cherished.”

She also hinted at Cersei’s appearance in the future episodes. This is the Lannister matriarch’s “most interesting season,” according to Headey, because she is in such a terrible position. Jaime’s relationship with her is also “at an all-time weird level.”