Hannah Waddingham is a well-respected actress, who starred in the critically acclaimed HBO series Game of Thrones. The actress has a wealth of experience in the industry and an admirable body of work.
Since the series ended in 2019, Waddingham has starred in other noteworthy shows, such as Ted Lasso. However, the character Waddingham played on the show could not have been more different from the role she played on the HBO show. As with most characters on the show, Waddingham’s character also met with a gruesome end, and shooting the scene was an awful experience for her.
Hannah Waddingham opens up about shooting her death scene on Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones is easily one of the biggest shows to grace screens in the last decade. Based on A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, it was adapted for television by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The show reached unprecedented levels of fame and success, and it gave the fans a lot of memorable characters. And one of them was Septa Unella, played by Hannah Waddingham.
Throughout its run, the showrunners strived to make the series stay as true to the source material as possible, even if the finale of the series was disappointing. This meant that the actors were put in rather difficult situations to bring the scenes to life.
Waddingham played the nun belonging to the Faith of the Seven, which had devolved into religious fanaticism. Her death scene was memorable, but for Waddingham, shooting it was nothing short of a nightmare.
The actress recently appeared on an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She recalled how shooting that particular scene made her feel claustrophobic, as she had to be waterboarded for hours on end while being strapped to a table.
“[Game Of Thrones] gave me something that I wasn’t expecting from it, and that’s chronic claustrophobia. I’ve talked about it since with David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the two executive producers on it, I was like, ‘Good job, it’s for them’, because it was horrific. Ten hours of being actually waterboarded. Like, actually waterboarded,” she said.
Waddingham has previously spoken about how that day was one of the worst days of her life on Collider Ladies Night. Regardless of her character’s fate, she holds the show in high regard.
How did Hannah Waddingham’s Septa Unella meet her end on Game of Thrones?
The last two episodes of the sixth season of the show remain a masterclass in all aspects, from acting, to music, to cinematography. Several iconic characters fall in one fell swoop as Cersei Lannister exacts her revenge, since “Lannisters always pay their debts.”
In the finale, Cersei orchestrates the deaths of the Tyrells and the High Sparrow, the leader of the Faith of the Seven. She blows up the Sept of Baelor with wildfire and then focuses her attention on Septa Unella, the nun belonging to the same faith.
The Faith was responsible for Cersei’s walk of shame through the streets of King’s Landing. Unella walked behind the queen, who had been stripped of all her clothing, yelling “shame” while ringing a bell repeatedly.
Cersei had her captured and strapped to a table in one of the rooms of the Red Keep. In the last few moments, the queen pours wine into Unella’s mouth and nostrils, leaving her at the hands of Ser Gregor Clegane, also known as the Mountain. As Cersei walks away, parroting Unella’s words back at her, the nun can be heard screaming.
Waddingham had previously revealed that her death was originally supposed to be even more gruesome, but it was changed at the last minute. The show was truly a phenomenon, and nothing else has been able to come close to such a scale.
Game of Thrones, available for streaming on HBO.
