Hannah Waddingham spent a roughly 10-hour filming day bound to a wooden table with heavy leather straps while liquid was repeatedly poured over her face for a scene in Game of Thrones.
Waddingham played Septa Unella, the religious zealot who imprisoned and humiliated Cersei Lannister. In the Season 6 finale, which aired June 26, 2016, Cersei takes revenge by restraining Unella and slowly pouring a wine-like liquid over her face as she struggles to breathe.
The pouring happened across repeated takes rather than continuously for all 10 hours, but Waddingham remained strapped down throughout the day. The restraints left bruises and marks on her body, the liquid stained her hair purple, and she could barely speak afterward. Lena Headey, who played Cersei, was also uncomfortable performing the scene and later called Waddingham a “trooper.”
The sequence replaced an earlier plan for The Mountain to rape Unella on-screen. Waddingham learned about the change while flying to Belfast, when updated pages for the scene mentioned that she’d need a wetsuit top beneath her costume.
She later recalled meeting Eugene Simon, who played Lancel Lannister, in the hotel elevator that night. Simon had spent days crawling through excrement for his own scenes, while Waddingham had almost no voice left after hers.
Only about 1 minute and 37 seconds of the ordeal appeared in the finished episode. Waddingham first described the experience in detail in May 2021, saying, “It definitely gave me claustrophobia around water.” She sought professional help after suffering a panic attack while watching another program that showed a face underwater.
When the story resurfaced during an April 2024 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Waddingham called the lasting effect “chronic claustrophobia.” She has also said she trusted the production and wanted to serve the scene, while remaining clear about the physical and psychological toll it took.
