Acting takes a lot of guts, skill and hard work, especially if it’s for a show as big as Game of Thrones. Hannah Waddingham, who has recently earned an Emmy nomination for her role on Ted Lasso, was really brave when auditioning for Game of Thrones. She was extra worried when she tried out for the role of Septa Unella because she was pregnant at the time, and thought that she was at the wrong place.
She spoke to Kate Thornton on White Wine Question Time podcast about juggling her career as a single mum. Waddingham said, “[The show] was so established. But I had been so busy doing theatre, eight shows a week. And so I knew of it of course, but it was season five when I went to the audition for it.”
“I was nearly eight and a half months pregnant, like pregnant from the cheekbones out, you know, when your face joins in, in the last month! I walked in, and honestly, I genuinely thought I was in the wrong place.”
“Because all the women were like, 70-odd, about five foot two and about 20 foot wide. I was like: ‘Right. I appreciate that I’m pregnant at the moment but I’m definitely in the wrong casting.”
“Apparently I’d been put in as the wild card. So when I went in for the meeting, and met [producers] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], and I was a bit like: ‘Hello. I don’t really know why I’m here and I know nothing about Game of Thrones. And I’m so pregnant, I might have an accident right here!”
She explained that in the middle of the audition she accidentally hit a casting assistant on the leg with a wooden ladle. She said: “In the middle of the tape, when I’m meant to be really nasty, I went: ‘Oh my god, darling. Are you all right?”
Do you think Hannah made the right choice by auditioning for Game of Thrones? Tell us in the comments below!
