Hannah Waddingham only had a small part in the sixth season of HBO's Game of Thrones, but she certainly made an impression as Septa Unella, aka the "Shame Nun."
As one of the High Sparrow's fanatical Faith Militant followers, Unella was responsible for keeping Cersei Lannister imprisoned as she prepared for her Walk of Atonement, and accompanied the Queen on her humiliating stroll through the streets of King's Landing. Later, Cersei enacted her revenge by tying her down to a table and torturing her with the help of The Mountain.
While speaking to Collider, Waddingham revealed that shooting this scene was not exactly a pleasant experience, as she ended up being waterboarded for real!
“I was strapped to a wooden table with proper big straps for 10 hours,” The Ted Lasso star explained. “And definitely, other than childbirth, it was the worst day of my life. Because Lena was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself. 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?’”
“The funny thing was, after we’d finished shooting it for the whole day, and people like Miguel Sapochnik, the director by the way, walking past with a cup of tea and a sandwich on-the-go and going, ‘Hi hunny, you alright?’ And I was like, ‘Not really. The crew have just been saying we are actually really waterboarding you here.’ And I was like, ‘Yup, you don’t need to tell me that!’”
Waddingham also revealed that Unella's treatment was very nearly much worse, as the character was originally going to be sexually assaulted by the Mountain before being killed.
“She was meant to be raped by The Mountain, and I think they’d had so many complaints about the rape of Sansa [Sophie Turner] that they chose not to go with it,” said the actress.
Probably a smart move - the last thing Game of Thrones needed was another rape scene!