Being waterboarded on Game Of Thrones gave Hannah Waddingham “chronic claustrophobia”
It took 10 hours to film the season six scene where Cersei tortures Waddingham's Septa Unella by pouring wine on her face
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If we had a nickel for every time an actor relitigated a scene where they or their co-star had been waterboarded this week, we’d have two nickels—which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right? First, it was Kirsten Dunst talking about her “miserable” Spider-Man upside-down kiss, and now it’s Hannah Waddingham, who revealed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that filming Game Of Thrones had a lasting effect on her psyche (far more than anything regarding its final season).
“Thrones gave me something I wasn’t expecting from it, which was chronic claustrophobia,” the Ted Lasso actor said. “It was horrific. Ten hours of being actually waterboarded. Like actually.”
Luckily, Waddingham doesn’t seem to harbor a lot of resentment toward showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for this ethically murky and frankly pretty illegal-sounding treatment. It’s “the reason why I don’t believe [Thrones] is touched yet in terms of the cinematography of it. For a series, it’s just a different level,” she explained. “But with that comes actual waterboarding.”
Despite the potentially lifelong medical condition, Waddingham has a good sense of humor about the whole thing. “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 said. “One of the other guys who had been shooting something else was like, ‘You’re lucky, I’ve just been crawling through shit on my elbow for four days.’ It kind of doesn’t matter when you’re in Thrones. You just want to give the best.”
Waddingham has spoken about this scene at length before, including in a 2021 interview with Collider in which she said that filming it was the second worst day of her life, second only to childbirth. “But in those moments you have to think, do you serve the piece and get on with it or do you chicken out and go, ‘No, this isn’t what I signed up for, blah, blah, blah?’”
Regardless of Waddingham’s perspective on this, this writer says “shame.” It seems like, somewhere along the way, someone should have said “no” before the first jug of wine was poured. Hopefully, no one was put in this sort of position on the set of Benioff and Weiss’ newest series, 3 Body Problem.
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Sounds dreadful…….’ think I’ll stick to Downton. – maxadrian, tynemouth, December 2014
I dunno, there’s that scene where Edith waterboards Mary in an attempt to get her to stop being such a bitch, but then Mary’s into it and Edith gives up after five minutes.
Drownton Abbey.
That was hot.
“The potentially lifelong medical condition?”
Claustrophobia is a medical condition?
It’s a behavioral health condition, a type of anxiety which could probably be treated with medications, so, yes?
Real claustrophobia is. The kind I have which I can only describe as (and please keep in mind I am not a doctor) “not terribly fond of tight spaces but certainly don’t have a crippling fear of being in them” is probably not a medical condition. You know, like how so many people claim to have OCD, when really they’re referring to an annoying habit.
I once stubbed my toe while playing an Oompa Loompa
I once lost my face while playing The Unknown.
noooooo….
noooooo….You once accidentally force choked your wife to death?
Man, I’ve never been able to get a sound out of one of those things.
Feed it beans first and then wait 30 min
Try playing it like a trombone
Should it be rusty?
What were you two playing? I picture soccer or kickball due to the toe thing.
Watching the finale of GoT was like our own waterboarding…Amirite?
Yes.
Jesus Christ, it’s called a rhetorical question, stupid.
something something Norm McDonald B-O-R-E-D-I-N-G am i right?
I was today years old when I learned that Hannah Waddingham was in Game of Thrones.AND she’s the Shame Nun!?
Huh–yeah I’m learning (realizing?) that just now thanks to you spelling it out. I didn’t even remember her getting waterboarded. Definitely remember the ‘shame’ scenes, though. Guess it’s a ‘good season’ ‘bad season’ thing.
I know! I found out about that only after watching Ted Lasso and then I was like WAIT WHAT
If she thinks that’s bad, she should see what they did to Vic Morrow…
damn, at least it was part of a really memorable episode that everyone loved! just kidding!
I managed to watched the entirety of this series in seven days (free trial). All I had to do was fast forward through all of the torture porn and battle scenes. Possibly some other miscellaneous material. The battle scene where the frozen zombie warriors lay down in the fire to make a path for their fellows was too much for me. Pretty sure I missed Ms. Waddington’s scene too. I feel kind of bad because my refusal to watch it is equivalent to it being left on the cutting room floor too, I guess.
It definitely is, later in the interview she mentioned that she only did the scene to impress some random message board commenter, I guess that was you. Shame…SHAME!
There was a message board? The message is to GG R. Martin: “You f-ed it up, dude.”
Narrators Note: He did not in fact F it up, dude.
David and Dan fucked it up. In the books, Sansa never meets Ramsey, and Jamie doesn’t rape Cersei (she objects to the location of the fucking, but not the actual fucking).Benioff and Weiss just really love rape.
I mean, there’s a LOT of rape in the books. Maybe that one scene isn’t rape in the books, but the ratio of rape is much, much higher in the books. Random, terrible characters just rape other characters and we get to read it about it in detail. A lot.
Absolutely. But most of the rape in the books (most, not all) doesn’t impact the main characters. This whole “raping Sansa to make her strong” is definitely David and Dan bullshit. In the books, most of the rape is similar to the scene at Craster’s Keep. Background noise.Having said that, if you eliminated the rape in both the books and the show, it wouldn’t be missed. It was entirely unnecessary and didn’t serve the characters or the story in any way. (It’s not like “The Accused” with Jodi Foster where it was the story). And now I realized I’m discussing sexual assault in a casual way. Excuse me while I go sit in a corner and think about what I’ve just done.
Nah it’s a great point. The only way any of it serves the story (and then just barely) is to show what terrible, terrible people they are and how it’s the poor that suffer in these things. It’s so excessive it would be comical if it weren’t so horrible. I tried to read them all back-to-back and had to take a break about midway through the third because it’s all so terrible. In hindsight I’d have been better off just finishing the third and stopping, since four and five were an absolute slog to get through.
I didn’t read five. I decided I wasn’t going to read another until Martin finished the entire series.
That’s not considered watching something, that’s just PG-rated cliff’s notes.
That makes absolutely no sense. There’s no problem following the plot and details of the story if you pass over material. I didn’t literally zoom ahead when there was a segue. The viewer knows the import of what’s going on.What’s wrong with cliff’s notes? A lot programs aren’t much more different that. Do you have an issue with them?
I have no problem whatsoever with cliff’s notes. Who would? I’m just pointing out it’s silly to say you watched the “entirety” of something that you actually skimmed. Of course you’re going to miss details.It’s the same thing as reading the cliff’s notes of Hamlet and claiming you read the play.I don’t make the rules.
ok
Without torture and battle scenes you probably could have watch it with a 4 hour trial.
Lol. Ok, I cheated some. The guy who lost his junk. That was just 100% unecessary. A little bit of battle action. They aren’t memorable.
“Kirsten Dunst talking about her “miserable” Spider-Man upside-down kiss, and”You know that she wasn’t upside down, right?
I offer my services to comfort Hannah Waddingham whenever she’s feeling like she needs a hug. Free of charge. No wait… I’ll pay! Please?
“But in those moments you have to think, do you serve the piece and get on with it or do you chicken out and go, ‘No, this isn’t what I signed up for, blah, blah, blah?’” I mean, I would have chickened out. Fuck that.
I feel sort of bad I watched all of Game of Thrones and do not have the slightest clue what scene she’s referring to (which must mean it was from the last couple of season)…but only sort of, since really it’s the producers fault for losing the thread so badly those last 10-12 episodes.