When it comes to The Game of Thrones franchise, one of the most antagonistic and complex characters to feature in it has to be that of Cersei Lannister. She has had one of the biggest influences on the plot of the series and has been the puppeteer of some of the biggest tragedies to occur in this universe. Being one of the main, consistent, villains of the series and constantly riding the line of good and evil, it is no surprise that the actress who plays this deeply complex character, Lena Headey, was handsomely compensated for her work.
This is expected that by its end, with how successful the series got, all of the actors who played series regulars would have really high salaries, as happens with all forms of successful media. However, it is surprising to find out just how much Headey made for each minute that she appeared in the series.
How Much Did Lena Headey Earn For Her Work In Game Of Thrones?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the central five actors, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, went up to the studio to negotiate their earnings ahead of the seventh season of the series, which had remained the same since the $150,000 an episode after their first set of contract renegotiations in 2013. While at the time, they increased to the $500,000 to $600,000 range, the number became a lot bigger for these five stars during Game of Thrones’s final season.
It was revealed that these five stars, who play the roles of Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, Cersei Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and Jamie Lannister, each earned around $1.2 million for each episode that they were in for the final season of the series. Looking a little closer into this and doing some math, it has also been figured out just how much Headey made for each minute that she appeared on screen.
How Much Did Lena Headey Make For Each Episode?
Fox News did the calculations of just how much Lena Headey would have made per minute playing Cersei Lannister in the final season of Game of Thrones. The final season has a total run time of 434 minutes across six episodes, of which, Headey features in three of them. In these three episodes, she appears for a total of 25 minutes. This brings her total down to $144,000 per minute of screen time.
It is essential to note, however, that the actress was obviously not paid on the basis of this, as she would have worked for a lot more than 25 minutes, with shoots going on for days on end. This as well as the fact that there are a lot of scenes that are removed from the final cut of any project, causes deleted scenes that add a lot more time to her screen time.
