Lena Headey wrote her short film and debut feature The Trap with her Game of Thrones co-star Michelle Fairley in mind.

The Trap, based on Headey’s 2019 short film of the same name, stars Fairley as an isolated woman who is slowly brought back to life through her friendship with a mysterious young drifter.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Headey revealed that she thought of Fairley, who played Catelyn Stark in Game of Thrones, as the lead character when she wrote the script.

“We are great mates. I hunted her down, made her drink with me, and we’ve got a lovely friendship,” the British actress stated. “I used to watch Michelle and she’s such a f**king beautiful actress, and I love her face. So I wrote this with her in mind. I wanted to be able to do all the things.”

Headey kept her leading stars – Fairley, James Nelson-Joyce and Steven Waddington – from her 2019 short when she expanded it into a feature, despite calls to cast “big names”.

“I had offers along the way to do the film with big names. But no. This film is what I love about British cinema. It’s working-class actors. There are accents. It has all the little things we don’t look at,” she explained. “And I was like, f**k it – I’m just going to do the film that I know I want to make with the people I want to make it with.”

The Trap had its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival in Texas over the weekend.

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