Hannah Waddingham Tells Of Lingering Trauma From Filming 'Game Of Thrones' Scene

Nearly five years after Game of Thrones aired its final episode, Hannah Waddingham is still bearing the brunt of filming one of the series most intense scenes. 

Appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert this week to promote her new film, The Fall Guy, Waddingham said she still experiences chronic claustrophobia as the result of the Season 6 scene  in which her character, Septa Unella, is tortured by Cersei (Lena Headey) and doused in the face with a jug of wine. 

There werent stunts, but Thrones gave me something I wasnt expecting from it, and that is chronic claustrophobia, she explained. It was horrific. [I had] 10 hours of being actually waterboarded like, actually waterboarded. 

Watch Hannah Waddinghams interview on The Late Show below. 

Waddingham recalled being strapped to a table with all these leather straps while shooting the scene. Her hair, dyed blond for the character, went purple by the end of shooting given the amount of grape juice that had been splashed on her head. 

I had strap marks all over me, like Id been attacked, she said. Still, she didnt get much sympathy from fellow actor Eugene Simon , who played Lancel Lannister: I told him everything, and he went, Youre lucky. Ive just been crawling on my elbows in shit for four days. 

The London-born actor, whose credits also include Sex Education and Ted Lasso, previously opened up about filming the scene in a 2021 interview with Collider .

Other than childbirth, it was the worst day of my life, she said at the time . You havent been in Game of Thrones unless youve been really, really battered around.

In her chat with Colbert, however, Waddingham suggested she had no regrets about the amount of effort she put into Game of Thrones, noting that it remains without parallel as far as prestige television series are concerned. 

The reason why I dont believe its touched yet, in terms of the cinematography of it for a series ... its just a different level. But, with that comes actual waterboarding.