Game of Thrones star Hannah Waddingham has claimed that filming a horrifying scene for the fantasy drama left her with a ‘chronic’ condition.
Throughout the eight-season run of the HBO series, there were certain, pivotal moments that left fans’ jaws on the floor, from the Red Wedding to the battle against the Night King at Hardhome.
Another was the so-called ‘Shame Nun’ who forced Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) to walk through the streets of King’s Landing naked, before being subjected to torture herself.
That nun, Septa Unella, was played by the legendary Hannah, who’s revealed in a new interview the impact that being ‘waterboarded’ had on her.
Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the US, the 49-year-old said: ‘Thrones gave me something I wasn’t expecting from it, and that is chronic claustrophobia.
‘‘Cause I had 10 hours… I mean I’ve talked about it since with David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the two exec producers on it. I was like, good job it’s for them, because it was horrific. 10 hours of being actually waterboarded. Like, actually waterboarded.’
Stephen, 59, expressed disbelief over this statement, stating: ‘What? Come on.’
Hannah continued: ‘No because Thrones is such a… the reason why I don’t believe it’s touched yet in terms of the cinematography of it for a series, it’s just a different level. But with that comes actual waterboarding.
‘So I’m strapped to a table with all these leather straps, and I couldn’t lift up my head because they said that’s going to be too obvious that it’s loose. I was like, right, I’d quite like it to be loose.’
The Ted Lasso actress recalled how she made her way back in a ‘sprauncy, fancy-pants lift’, still dressed up in her Game of Thrones garb following the filming of the scene.
‘My hair’s already bleached to death. I had 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’d been attacked.
‘And the lift doors open, one of the other guys who’d been shooting something else was just like, “What has happened to you?”’
The man in question had also endured a gruelling task for filming, informing Hannah that he’d had to crawl through disgusting, muddy terrain for ‘four days’.
Following on from Game of Thrones, Hannah went on to star in Sex Education as one of Jackson’s mums, Sophia, and Ted Lasso as Rebecca Welton, the owner of AFC Richmond.
She won several awards for her performance in the heartwarming Apple TV Plus series, including an Emmy and a Critics’ Choice Award.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs on CBS in the US.
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