Here's How Game of Thrones Star Really Felt About The Show's Grossest Scene
There was no shortage of gross scenes throughout Game of Thrones.
If it wasn't the violence of the Red Wedding, it was watching incestuous relationships play out in front of our eyes. And yet, arguably the grossest scene of the entire show was the montage of Sam Tarly cleaning bedpans among other menial tasks he had been charged with.
The scene began with Sam retching at the foul stench of the bedpans' contents. And this was bad enough. But as it developed, we saw just how much the contents of those contents resembled the slop Sam was dishing out to diners.
And all the while, he was dreaming of accessing the forbidden section of the library – his status and desire juxtaposed against each other simply because he was not a fighter in a land where fighting was deemed to be so important.
But if you thought this scene was a tough watch (and you just can't get it out of your mind once you've been reminded of it), spare a thought for actor John Bradley.
In 2017's interview with Vulture, Bradley described how the scene was created and what they used to make the authentic-looking contents of the bedpans.
"Well, if you want to recreate human faeces on screen," said Bradley, "the best thing to do is to use soaking wet fruitcake".
He went on to describe how this mixture was moulded "into the shape of turds" to produce something that we can all agree was absolutely disgusting to look at.
"The thing about wet fruitcake," Bradley continued, "is when you see it for the first time at 6:30 in the morning, it's fresh."
So, why was he so repulsed when filming the scene?
Well, as he explains, "when you get to 5 in the afternoon and you've been shooting all day, and the wet fruitcake has been in the water and under the hot lights all day, it starts to become only slightly less unpleasant than the real thing."
Like us as viewers, of course, Bradley knew that what was being portrayed as human faeces was not the real thing. But the great thing about TV – and in particular Game of Thrones – is that you're drawn in by the authenticity of what you're watching. Luckily for us, though, we didn't have to put up with the smell of wet cake as it grew gradually less like anything edible throughout the day.
Still, it was a memorable scene in an epic series. So, maybe John Bradley doesn't have altogether bad memories of filming it.