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Hannah Waddingham isn’t afraid of a challenge — but on Game of Thrones, it came with a price. The 49-year-old U.K. native claimed that she was “actually waterboarded” while filming a graphic torture scene for the hit HBO series. Hannah dropped the bombshell revelation during her Tuesday, April 2, appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
While talking about stunts, Stephen pointed out that Hannah was in the fantasy series, and she replied, “They weren’t stunts, but Thrones gave me something I wasn’t expecting from it, and that is chronic claustrophobia.”
“Because I had 10 hours — I have talked about it since with David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the two exec producers on it. I was like, ‘Good job it’s for them because it was horrific,’” Hannah recalled saying, before pointing out that she spent, “10 hours of being actually waterboarded. Like actually waterboarded.”
Stephen initially expressed his doubts on her claim, but Hannah insisted by replying, “No, because Thrones is such a — the reason why I don’t believe it’s touched yet in terms of the cinematography of it for a series — it’s just a different level. But with that comes actual waterboarding.”
The Ted Lasso star then described how the production filmed her scene, which was when her character, Septa Unella, was tortured by Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane.
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“So, I’m strapped to a table with these leather straps,” Hannah began. “And I couldn’t lift up my head ’cause they said that’s gonna be too obvious that it’s loose. I was like, ‘Right. I’d quite like it to be loose.’ So, I’m on my way back, and I’m in this fancy pants lift, and my hair’s already bleached to death. I had grape juice all in my hair, so it went purple. I couldn’t speak because The Mountain had his hand over my mouth because I was screaming, and I had strap marks everywhere like I’d been attacked.”
Despite the interesting on-set experience, Hannah concluded, “It kind of doesn’t matter when you’re in Thrones, because you just want to give the best.”
Since starring in seasons 5 and 6 of the former HBO show, Hannah has appeared in several well-known projects, including Ted Lasso, Hocus Pocus 2 and Sex Education. She is also slated to appear in Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling‘s upcoming action flick, The Fall Guy, which premieres on May 3. She is also starring in Mission: Impossible 8.
