Hannah Waddingham starred in Game of Thrones (Image: Kate Green/BAFTA, Getty Images for BAFTA)
Hannah Waddingham has previously shared she was left with “chronic claustrophobia” following a “horrific” experience whilst filming Game of Thrones.
The Ted Lasso star portrayed Septa Unella in the fantasy drama, which broadcast on Sky Atlantic in the UK. In one sequence the character was restrained whilst Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) poured wine over her face, which the actress compared to being “waterboarded”, reports the Mirror.
Speaking candidly during an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in 2024, Hannah said: “Thrones gave me something I wasn’t expecting from it and that is chronic claustrophobia because I had 10 hours, I mean I’ve talked about it since with David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the two 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.”
She continued: “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 I said that’s gonna be too obvious that it’s loose.”
The actress featured in the hit series from 2015 to 2016 (Image: Home Box Office, Inc. All)
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Hannah – who featured in the hit series from 2015 to 2016 – revealed that following the ordeal, she encountered another actor in the lift, and they shared jokes about what they’d endured.
“I had purple, 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 (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson) had his hand over my mouth whilst I was screaming and I had strap marks everywhere like I’d been attacked,” she said.
“And the lift doors open, one of the other guys who had been shooting something else was just like, ‘What, what has happened to you’ and I told him everything. And and he went, ‘Well you’re lucky, I’ve just been crawling through s*** on my elbows for four days!'”
The star said the day was among the ‘worst’ she’d had (Image: HBO)
“We were laughing about the fact that both of us are in Game of Thrones and it kind of doesn’t matter when you’re in Thrones because you just want to give the best,” she said.
Hannah had previously confessed the day ranked amongst the “worst” she had ever experienced. Speaking to Collider, the actress — who has a daughter — reflected on the scene: “Definitely, other than childbirth it was the worst day of my life.
“Lena was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself,” she said. “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?'”
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Hannah Waddingham will be on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh at 9.30am on ITV on Sunday March 1.
