Sophie Turner aside, Headey wins a medal for best improvement from Season 1 to Season 2 – and that’s saying something, since she was pretty high on my list already (cracking the S1 top 10, anyway, which is more than I can say for S1 Turner). If S1 Lena was definitely solid, S2 Headey is just incredible. Sure, she’s got more material.... way more material. It’s not exactly easy material, though, and either you take it head-on and do something magnificent, or you choke horribly. Headey turned out magnificent.
Cersei is hard to portray because a lot of her lines seemingly call for ham (check TVTropes is you don’t know what ham is, and come back once you’ve lost the mandatory three hours), but actually will work much better with a downplayed performance, which is exactly what Headey gunned for.
Let’s take an example, so I can show you exactly how goddamn great she is when it comes to downplayed and subtle performance. Open this for me:
That’s a scene from EP1 as Tyrion barges into a Small Council meeting. Skip to 3:30, as Cersei relents and lets Tyrion assume the role of Hand in their father’s stead. “You’re only here to advise [the King],” she says. Sure, says Tyrion, "and if the King listens to me, he might get his uncle Jaime back." Now watch her. Watch her face. I’ll help you: it’s from 3:43 to 3:47.
This is incredible. Stannis’s smile when talking to Davos was glorious, this is simply amazing as well. She just raises her eyes a bit and stares in the distance. That defines Cersei perfectly. You can see that she cares a lot – a lot – for Jaime, and desperately wants him back, but she also doesn’t want to show weakness to Tyrion, and thus equally desperately tries to remain expressionless. It’s nothing – just her moving her eyes a bit – but magnificent.
I could cite a ton of examples as well, as she brought that kind of crazy performance almost every week. I don’t think I have to say anything regarding Blackwater, as she was again incredibly solid in that one (I don’t know whether I’d choose her drunken scene with Sansa or the final scene with Tommen as my favourite). I might as well mention the scene where she slaps Joffrey, just because you can see that she’s plainly at a loss – and perhaps even a bit afraid – after Joffrey’s less-than-amiable reaction.
What a solid performance. What a goddamn solid performance.
Best scene: Gonna settle for one of these two from Blackwater, although I maintain that the single “How?” from EP1 (aka the scene I talked about earlier) was the single best-delivered line/awkward moment of the entire season for me. Okay, maybe not the best – I’m sure I can think of something else from one of my very top actors, but still. It was superbly delivered. Maybe Headey might just make a certain tedious part of the series enjoyable to watch (book readers will understand).
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When you have nothing to say, quote yourself ~ Solfadore