Hannah Waddingham earned much-deserved praise and critical acclaim for her role on Ted Lasso. But it was an under-the-radar (at the time) part on another lauded, Emmy-winning series that left her with undeniable trauma.
The actress recently sat down for an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where she opened up about playing Septa Unella on seasons 5 and 6 of Game of Thrones, a role in which she was nearly unrecognizable as the devoted follower of the villainous High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce).
It took many fans a bit of time to connect her bright and powerful Ted Lasso role as soccer team owner Rebecca Welton to the cloaked and dour Septa who tormented a captive Cersei (Lena Headey) in the later seasons of the fantasy drama. But for Waddingham, the physical trial of the intense GoT role has never quite left her.
"I have talked about it since with David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the two exec producers on it... because it was horrific," she told Colbert. "[I had] 10 hours of being actually waterboarded, like, actually waterboarded."
At the time, the scene in question was seen as Cersei winning her revenge over the religious zealot, and escaping her horrendous captivity. But in reality, for Waddingham, the torturous moment was genuinely traumatic, as she was legitimately tied down to a wooden board as Headey's character poured wine over her face, demanding she confess her own sins.
"I'm strapped to a table with all these leather straps and I couldn't lift up my head because they said that was going to be too obvious that it's loose," she recalled, "and I was like, 'Right, I'd quite like them to be loose.'"
"Thrones gave me something I wasn't expecting from it," the actress admitted, "and that is chronic claustrophobia."
"In terms of the cinematography of it for a series, it’s just a different level," she added of the show, which ultimately won 38 Emmys over its eight-season run. "But with that, comes actual waterboarding."
This isn't the first time that Waddingham has opened up about the harrowing experience. In an interview with Collider in May 2021, she shared that "definitely, other than childbirth, it was the worst day of my life."
"Lena was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself," Waddingham revealed. "But in those moments, you have to think, do you serve the piece and get on with it or do you chicken out?"
"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, going, 'Hi hunny, you alright?' And I was like, 'Not really!'" she recalled. "[He said], '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!'"
Thankfully, Waddingham's Ted Lasso success -- which included multiple awards season nominations, and wins at the Emmys, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild Awards -- has propelled her to much kinder roles, including her own musical Christmas special on Apple TV+, and hopefully in the future, a manifested cameo on Abbott Elementary.
The actress told ET at Ted Lasso'sfinal season premiere in March 2023 that she'd love to make an appearance on the beloved school comedy -- and she's got series star Lisa Ann Walter firmly in her corner.
"I thought that I could be an absolutely revolting a**hole English person that comes in," she said of her cameo vision. "I want to be really vile, or be really nice on face value, and then they're all like, 'She's a b*tch!'"
"If I got over actually being in the staff room, I'd be, like, fangirling," Waddingham admitted. "More than I do on [Ted Lasso]!"
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