Game of Thrones star Lena Headey has cast yet more light on the murky world of Hollywood sexism.

The Yorkshire-born actress – who plays Cersei Lannister in the smash hit HBO series – says young women auditioning for roles face intense pressure to be “beautiful and skinny”, as male directors speculate over who they want to have sex with.

Speaking to her co-star Maisie Williams (aka Arya Stark) in a new interview for Net-A-Porter's magazine The Edit, Headey says:

“When I was in my twenties, and doing a lot of audition tapes in the States, a casting director told me: “The men take these tapes home and watch them and say, ‘Who would you f***?’”

The star says she refused to play “the game of going in [to auditions] and flirting” and is “very happy” to have lost out on roles as a result.

Hollywood directors ‘speculate about who to have sex with in auditions’, says Game of Thrones star