There are very few things in (fictional, HBO-produced) life more withering than an insult from Game of Thrones‘ Cersei, Queen Regent of the Seven Kingdoms. Jimmy Kimmel knows this firsthand. Back in 2014, Kimmel invited Lena Headey — the actress behind Cersei’s consistently next-level shade — to slug wine from a goblet and hurl insults at him, “Game of Thrones-style.” Headey’s best and most excoriating line: “The last time. I’m sure your wife must say that to you every night.”
Last night, the clearly masochistic Kimmel invited Headey back to his show, but this time — perhaps worried she might again insult his sexual prowess — gave her pre-written lines to read. And not just any pre-written lines, but lines pulled directly from this season of The Bachelor, a similarly dark and violent series about power-hungry people falling over each other in hopes of ingratiating themselves to the public and winning a subsequent contract with ABC. Kimmel explained the choice thusly: “You say the meanest things in a very cool way — you insult the others, you threaten them, that sort of thing. This happens on The Bachelor, as well, with the women. They’re also drinking, as you do.”
Despite having “never seen” the show, Headey gamely swigged from yet another goblet of wine, stared directly into the camera, and proceeded to coldly eviscerate women she’d never met, let alone drunkenly live-tweeted about in the comfort of her own home. Cersei’s not here to make friends.
