The Game of Thrones That Left Its Star With Claustrophobia Could’ve Been So Much Worse
Another option was even more tough.
Summary:
- Game of Thrones became wildly famous not only thanks to its compelling plot and its twists, but also to a huge amount of visibly brutal scenes that made many of its actors uncomfortable on set and even after the show ended.
- As Septa Unella’s actress Hannah Waddingham revealed, one particular scene gave her a long-lasting sense of water claustrophobia, but the creators’ initial plan for this moment was much harsher than that.
- The primary idea for Waddingham’s scene was dismissed after the show was heavily criticized for another explicit scene featuring Sansa Stark.
Throughout its several-year-long television run, Game of Thrones has never appeared to be a show that was easy and relaxing to watch — quite the contrary, it was constantly giving most of its viewers chills while waiting for something even more cruel to pop up.
Though all that happened in the show wasn’t real and stayed within the show, some actors were affected by the shooting process in a very real way.
In her interview with Stephen Colbert, actress Hannah Waddingham, who got to portray Septa Unella in one of Game of Thrones’ last seasons, revealed that one scene, where she had appeared alongside Lena Headey’s Cersei Lannister, left her with a very clear sense of water claustrophobia which wouldn’t go away even after Waddingham’s role in the series was over.
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As the actress recalled it, such an impact was given by the scene where Cersei was waterboarding Septa with wine — and the problem here was that the perfect shot wouldn’t come along with the first take.
According to Waddingham, she had to stay in such an uncomfortable position for ten hours straight without even being able to lift her head up.
Though a torturous process of filming the scene with Cersei’s revenge towards Septa was nothing compared to what the creators had originally planned instead of waterboarding.
As Hannah Waddingham once told herself in one of her previous interviews, Cersei Lannister’s punishment for Septa after the latter made her walk through the whole city naked owning up to her crimes was even more brutal before the decision was dismissed.
The earlier script had no mention of waterboarding, instead making Cersei’s henchman Gregor Clegane aka Mountain sexually assault Septa — but the show’s previous critique for the visible assault of Sansa Stark in season 5 became a stop button.
Eventually the only thing that the actress needed to take care of was a wetsuit top — as Waddingham later put it, the rest of the crew wouldn’t let her die anyway.