Waterboarding is one of the most cruel torture methods in which prisoners are strapped upside down on an inclined board while a cloth covers their face and water is poured over them.
Hannah Waddingham had to endure this over and over again for ten hours while filming. This experience, which the British actress Hannah Waddingham recently described on the “Late Show” on the US television network CBS, sounds shocking – but it didn’t stop there: In an interview with talk show host Stephen Colbert, Waddingham speaks openly for the first time about the long-term consequences of the experience on the set of the cult series “Game of Thrones”.
The actress says she has been suffering from acute claustrophobia since the waterboarding shoot. She also told the series creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss reports.
Waddingham is happy with the result of the filming spree, she says, but she is struggling with the consequences. In the series, Waddingham plays Septa Unella, a merciless jailer who appears in the fifth season. In her first scene, she leads Cersei Lannister naked through the streets and repeatedly insults her, calling her “shame.” This humiliation has consequences: In the sixth season, Cersi’s revenge follows – in the form of waterboarding – with wine.
The filming of this scene haunts Waddingham to this day. “Apart from the birth of my child, it was the worst day of my life,” she told the online portal “Collider” in 2021. According to Waddingham, Cersei actress Lena Hadey also felt uncomfortable having liquid poured into her face.
Sources: “Late Show” on CBS, Collider
