It’s been two years since Game of Thrones came to an end and while the series had many controversial moments and a divisive final season, it’s still considered by many to be one of the greatest shows in history. One of the series’ biggest backlash moments was back in Season 5 when Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) was raped by Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) on their wedding night. This caused understandable outrage, which led to some future changes to the series. Recently, Hannah Waddingham, who played Septa Unella on Game of Thrones (but these days she’s best known as Rebecca Welton on Ted Lasso), spoke with Collider and revealed her character’s ending was almost much worse.
“She was meant to be raped by The Mountain, and I think they’d had so many complaints about the rape of Sansa that they chose not to go with it,” Waddingham revealed. “I think they possibly changed it when I was mid-air flying to Belfast because suddenly I got sent these new sides that said that I would need a wetsuit top. And I thought they’d sent me the wrong bits. And sure enough, when I got there, I was then put in a wetsuit top and I was like, ‘Because?’ And they went, ‘Oh, it’s waterboarding instead.'”
Septa Unella was one of Game of Thrones‘ many terrible characters. In case you’ve forgotten, she’s the “Shame” Septa who paraded Cersei Lannister (Lena Heady) through King’s Landing at the end of Season 5. Fans of the show weren’t exactly sad to see her end up with a terrible fate, but it’s safe to assume there would have been backlash had she been sexually assaulted. In the end, they made the right call. Cersei’s revenge on those who wronged her is one of the most epic moments in the series, and this would have absolutely ruined it for many people.
Unfortunately, Waddingham’s experience being waterboarded wasn’t exactly pleasant. In fact, it sounds like she had liquid poured on her face repeatedly for ten hours.
“And 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,” she shared. “Because Lena was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself. 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?’ And then, the funny thing was, after we’d finished shooting it for the whole day, and people like Miguel Sapochnik, the director by the way, walking past with a cup of tea and a sandwich on-the-go and going, ‘Hi hunny, you alright?’ And I was like, ‘Not really.’ ‘The crew have just been saying we are actually really waterboarding you here.’ And I was like, ‘Yup, you don’t need to tell me that!’”
In a word: yikes. None of this is exactly pleasant news, but we’re glad to see people opening up about their experiences. Hopefully, the upcoming Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon, will be a more pleasant time for those involved.
