Game of Thrones star says being strapped down and waterboarded while filming torture scene was ‘worst day of my life’
GAME Of Thrones star Hannah Waddingham has relived the horrific waterboarding scene from the series – dubbing it the ‘worst day of her life’. The actress played Septa Unella in the long-running HBO series, the fanatical follower of The High Sparrow who iconically yelled “Shame” toward Cersei Lannister during her naked walk of atonement. But […]
GAME Of Thrones star Hannah Waddingham has relived the horrific waterboarding scene from the series – dubbing it the ‘worst day of her life’.
The actress played Septa Unella in the long-running HBO series, the fanatical follower of The High Sparrow who iconically yelled “Shame” toward Cersei Lannister during her naked walk of atonement.
But in a season six scene that was hard to stomach, Cersei eventually got her own back – by strapping her down to a plinth and waterboarding her with wine to make her confess she took joy in watching her suffer.
Discussing the lengths the cast went to for the scene, Hannah told Collider’s Ladies Night it was the “worst day of her life”.
In a shocking reveal, Hannah told the panel: “There I was strapped to a wooden table with proper big straps for ten hours. And definitely, other than childbirth, it was the worst day of my life.
“Because Lena [Headey, who played Cersei] was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself.”
Revealing she decided to put up with the real-life torture in order to suit the scene, she added: “I could barely speak because I had been screaming through The Mountain’s hand.
“So I had no voice at all to barely whisper, bruises already coming up like I had been attacked and I was like, ‘I’ve basically just been waterboarded for ten hours’.”
However, as a consummate pro, she refused to buckle to it and continued to suffer for the sake of the scene.
“The one thing I kept thinking to myself [was] ‘the production company aren’t going to let you die, so get on with it, be uncomfortable’.”
After being left feeling claustrophobic and slightly scared of water, Hannah said that she had to speak to a counsellor about it to feel more normal.
The scene was a last minute addition to the season six retribution story of Cersei – and in original scripts was actually meant to be far more horrific and brutal.
“Unella was meant to be raped by The Mountain,” Hannah revealed.
“I think they’d had so many complaints about the rape of Sansa that they chose not to go with it.”
Nowadays, Hannah is in the far more safe and wholesome world of Ted Lasso – Apple TV’s TV series that has taken the world by storm.
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In the show, based around AFC Richmond, Hannah plays football club owner Rebecca, who is still scorned after her cheating husband left her for someone half their age.
Initially hiring American Ted Lasso in a bid to sink the club into financial ruin to get back at her husband, she’s found herself softening towards the well meaning character, played by Jason Sudeikis.
Game Of Thrones is available on Sky Atlantic.