Lena Headey, star of the series-monument “Game of Thrones”, participated in the filming of “Thor : Love and Thunder” but does not appear in the final cut. A role for which his ex-representation agency claims him, among other things, 500,000 dollars in commission.
The actress sued by her ex-agency
Lena Headey, British actress who achieved iconic status with her role as Cersei Lannister in the series Game of Thrones, faces a complex situation. Active on the small and the big screen since 1992, we notice her in particular in the film 300 by Zack Snyder and on television as Sarah Connor in the series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in 2008 and 2009.
Lena Headey enters a new dimension thanks to his dazzling presence in 62 episodes of the phenomenon Game of Thrones, from 2011. Became a familiar face and a planetary celebrity, she has since been in high demand. While she was to appear in the Marvel blockbuster Thor : Love and Thundershe is finally not retained in the final assembly. Whether she appears there or not, it doesn’t change anything – or very little – to the fact that she was paid for her work, and that’s where things get complicated.
Indeed, his former agency Troika – which became YMU in 2018, and which Lena Headey left in 2020 – formalized a complaint for breach of contract and non-payment of commissions dueincluding a 7% commission on his stamp of Thor : Love and Thunderwhich alone represents $500,000.
Lena Headey says she never signed anything
The YMU agency (ex-Troika) was co-founded in 2005 by Michael Duff, Lena Headey’s agent since 2005. An association that ended in 2020, but for Michael Duff and the YMU agency, Lena Headey still owes them commissions: $500,000 for Thor : Love and Thunder$300,000 for her starring role in the film 9 bulletsand $650,000 for the Showtime series Rita. That is a total of around the $1.5 millionwhat the agency is asking him today.
Without more details available, we can assume that these commissions are already “increased” by damages and/or late payment penalties. In effect, if according to the information of Varietythe actress owes the agency 7% of her earnings, which would increase her fee for Love and Thunder at about $7 million. An extraordinarily high sum for a role finally cut during editing…
Regardless, Lena Headey strongly disagrees with the agency’s request. She assures us that she has no never signed anything with Duff or the Troika agencyand that her collaboration with Duff had been based on a pure oral agreement since the end of the 90s. In the documents disclosed by the various parties concerned by the complaint, Lena Headey also assures that the Troika agency had no part in its participation in Thor : Love and Thunder, and that she was approached directly by director Taika Waititi. Same case for 9 bullets. And concerning the series Rita, which was not confirmed after the production of the pilot episode, the actress declares to have been paid 325,000 dollars, and to have already paid the corresponding commission (22,750 dollars) to the agency.
