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Lena Headey Says Terry Gilliam Bullied Her on the Set of ‘The Brothers Grimm’


  • October 17, 2017

Game of Thrones star Lena Headey says that she was bullied by director Terry Gilliam on the set of the 2005 film The Brothers Grimm.

Headey on Tuesday posted a statement to Twitter joining the chorus of women who have accused producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment. She says that Weinstein made suggestive comments to her, invited her back to his hotel room, inappropriately touched her, and became extremely angry when she denied his advances. But in addition to this Weinstein accusation, Headey also called out director Terry Gilliam in her statement.

She wrote, “…during shooting [of The Brothers Grimm], I was subjected to endless bullying by director Terry Gilliam.” When a Twitter user responded and thanked her for “outing Terry Gilliam as a really really huge asshole,” Headey retweeted this.

The Brothers Grimm was directed by Terry Gilliam and distributed by Miramax, the company founded by Harvey Weinstein that he ran until 2005.

Lena Headey at the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 6.

Lena Headey at the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 6. | Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

This was actually not the first time that Lena Headey has called out Terry Gilliam, although it’s the first time she’s done so in a while. In a 2007 interview, she told Contact Music that she had a horrible experience shooting The Brothers Grimm.

“The director didn’t want me in the role and let’s just say he wasn’t too subtle about showing his dislike for me,” she said. “Once the film came out and didn’t do so well, he blamed me for absolutely everything. It was pretty appalling, and it made me want to not work for a while.”

Headey also said in that 2007 interview that she was extremely relieved when she was cast in 300, which was released a year after The Brothers Grimm and helped put Headey on the map five years before she was cast in Game of Thrones.

Terry Gilliam is an acclaimed director who has been responsible for films like Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. His next film is The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which stars Adam Driver and will be released sometime next year.

In 2016, after Amber Heard accused Johnny Depp of abuse, Terry Gilliam came to Depp’s defense and accused Heard of lying. He said on Twitter that Heard was a “better actress than I thought.”