Lena Headey has built a very successful career portraying strong, powerful women. Few actors can weaponize motherhood the way she can.
In Netflix’s female-led Western The Abandons, Headey has returned to familiar territory, but with a twist as Fiona Nolan, a barren woman who has raised four orphans. This faith-driven mother is not motivated by bloodlines and refuses to let power, greed, or money drive her and her children from the cattle ranch they call home.
Creator and executive producer Kurt Sutter’s frontier story charges in like a gunshot, staking its claim with fierce women, brutal stakes, and absolutely zero interest in playing nice, fair, or safe.
The Abandons is centered around the widowed matriarchs of two very different families in Washington Territory in 1854, in a place known as Jasper Hollow. Headey stars opposite Gillian Anderson, who portrays Constance Van Ness, the matriarch of a wealthy dynasty. This mother of three inherited her husband’s mining empire and doubled his fortune. She uses her money to try to intimidate Fiona, but it doesn’t work, and things escalate as both women fight for their land and families.
“I loved the journey of Fiona, who sort of begins as this slightly quiet, God-fearing mother,” Headey explained, adding that she also appreciated that the story was led by two fierce mothers, in what’s typically been a male-dominated genre. “I love the fact that it was two women of this age that we rarely see front and center. Imagine that! Two women? Oh, my God! Shocking!”
Headey continued, saying how much she enjoyed working alongside Anderson: “I just loved that aspect. And I wish we’d have had more scenes, and that we would’ve gone further into their battle. But it was such a pleasure to get to do pages of dialogue, or silence, or just sit in quiet conflict.”
Headey sat alongside Anderson in an interview before the December 4 premiere of the seven-episode series. They each opened up about their respective roles as overbearing mothers who have a twisted form of love and devotion to their children.
Neither plays by the rules nor the law, especially when their fates become linked by murder, secrets, and a bid for a piece of land with silver underneath.
While Anderson discussed portraying a ruthless mother and how this was her first time playing a villain, Headey, who is well-versed in evil characters, was excited about the opportunity to dive into the complexities of motherhood, especially for a woman who couldn’t have biological children, and what it means to be an overbearing mother.
“I think this is an interesting dynamic. Constance had her own children. She’s not necessarily the most natural mother, I would say, and Fiona couldn’t conceive. Fiona is desperate to be a parent, and there’s this one scene where Constance says to Fiona, ‘You know, we kind of do these things to hinder them, so they stay.’ I think that’s the truth for both of them,” said Headey of both characters’ need to control their grown children so they never leave them. “I don’t know about Constance’s wrestling with her motherhood, but I know Fiona is somewhat guilty of needing and wanting her children to stay.”
We’ve seen Headey as a mother before, but this time is different from her portrayal as Cersei Lannister, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, in HBO’s Game of Thrones. As Cersei, she redefined the overbearing mother, ruling Westeros with iron-clad devotion to her children. The role earned her critical acclaim and multiple Emmy nominations.
Counter to the cunning and power-hungry Cersei, who was very driven by blood and whose three children were fathered by her brother, Jaime Lannister, Fiona is raising a family she fought to assemble, giving Headey’s performance a new edge.
In a television landscape rife with male-dominated Westerns, Netflix’s The Abandons is a standout for its female-helmed take with two iconic stars leading the charge. Anderson and Headey are phenomenal in their roles as two warring mothers who will do anything to protect their families in this gritty tale of the haves versus the have-nots.
