Game Of Thrones' Waterboarding Scene Put Hannah Waddingham Through Very Real Trauma
Acting is often a pretty fun job, but sometimes it can get downright traumatizing. There are loads of stories about horror movie actors who were changed forever after their performances, like Shelley Duvall being tormented by Stanley Kubrick on the set of "The Shining." But that kind of on-set awfulness unfortunately exists in all kinds of entertainment, like the brutal HBO fantasy drama "Game of Thrones."
The series ran for eight seasons and featured some truly despicable characters doing awful things to one another, including torture. There's actually quite a bit of torture in "Game of Thrones," ranging from a man being disemboweled by a terrified rat in a bucket at Harrenhal to Ramsay Bolton's (Iwan Rheon) extended abuse of Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen), who becomes the feeble-minded and broken Reek on account of it. Torture is big business in Westeros and Essos, and even the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms got in on it as an act of revenge.
In the season 6 finale, "The Winds of Winter," Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) gets vengeance on Septa Unella (Hannah Waddingham), who assisted in cutting off Cersei's hair and parading her through the streets of King's Landing. Cersei basically waterboards Unella with wine, and in several interviews over the years, Waddingham has revealed that the experience of filming it gave her lasting claustrophobia.
Ten hours of torture
Waddingham recently stopped by "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," where she shared that filming the waterboarding scenes had lasting effects:
"'Thrones' gave me something I wasn't expecting from it, which was chronic claustrophobia. It was horrific. Ten hours of being actually waterboarded. Like actually. I'm strapped to a table with all these leather straps. I couldn't lift up my head because I said that would be too obvious that it's loose. I'm on my way back [from set] with grape juice all in my hair so it went purple, I couldn't speak because the Mountain had his hand over my mouth while I was screaming and I had strap marks everywhere like I had been attacked."
She went on to share that she saw someone else on set had been going through their own misery, "crawling through s***" on their elbows for days, and she said that it showed how everyone just wanted to give their best in a tough situation. She first opened up about the challenges of filming the waterboarding scene with Collider in 2021, noting that Headey was also uncomfortable, not wanting to pour liquid onto Waddingham's face for hours at a time. It's rough stuff that makes sense for the characters, who have nothing but enmity for one another, but is incredibly difficult for the actors. Waddingham even told Collider that she lost her voice from screaming so much during the torture sequence and "could barely speak."
True-to-life torture
By the end of season 6, Cersei has completely given in to her most murderous urges and is ready to watch the world burn. Torturing the woman who had put her through such hell only makes sense for a vindictive viper like Cersei, and while the scene contains some truly incredible acting, it's also really rough to watch. In an interview where Headey and Waddingham sat down together with Entertainment Weekly, Headey even said that filming the scene made her feel "horrendous." The good news is that the two remained friends despite the awful experience, and Waddingham went on to star in a much fluffier, warmer series: "Ted Lasso." In fact, she won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress for the series in 2023, getting some much-deserved love and recognition.
As for "Game of Thrones"? The series got new life with the prequel spin-off "House of the Dragon," which still has its fair share of torture and misery, but is so far avoiding some of the biggest mistakes of "Thrones." Here's hoping that it continues to dodge those pitfalls in season 2 and beyond.