‘Game of Thrones’ Actress Hannah Waddingham Details Being Waterboarded on Set for 10 Hours

[Cicada 5]

“I was strapped to a wooden table with proper big straps for 10 hours,” Waddingham said. “And definitely, other than childbirth, it was the worst day of my life. Because Lena was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself. But in those moments you have to think, do you serve the piece and get on with it or do you chicken out and go, ‘No, this isn’t what I signed up for, blah, blah, blah?’”

Waddingham continued, “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 and going, ‘Hi hunny, you alright?’ And I was like, ‘Not really.’ ‘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!’”

According to Waddingham, she “could barely speak” after the day of filming because she “had been screaming through The Mountain’s hand, which is quite frightening as a singer to completely lose your voice.” The actress added, “I had no voice at all…bruises already coming up like I had been attacked.”

The actress concluded, “I hadn’t even realized that it definitely gave me claustrophobia around water. Definitely. I hadn’t realized until I watched a program where the camera’s down on the actor’s face and they’re being dipped into the water, but you see them face-up to the camera, and I got in a terrible panic about it. And I actually went and had a bit of a chat to somebody about it, because it’s quite full-on being waterboarded for 10 hours, and then only one minute and 30 seconds can be used on camera.”

‘Game of Thrones’ Star Hannah Waddingham Details Being Waterboarded on Set for 10 Hours

"Other than childbirth, it was the worst day of my life," Hannah Waddingham says.

www.indiewire.com

 

[laggyteabag]

I mean, surely there are a million ways that they could have done this scene, without doing it for real, right? And if not, surely someone at some stage should have stepped up and said that they cannot actually waterboard a woman, and the scene should be taken back to the drawing board.

Obviously not, if this interview is to be believed.

 

[happyninja42]

I mean, surely there are a million ways that they could have done this scene, without doing it for real, right? And if not, surely someone at some stage should have stepped up and said that they cannot actually waterboard a woman, and the scene should be taken back to the drawing board.

Obviously not, if this interview is to be believed.

Shit like THIS, the need to "make it real for the audience or they will lose their shit", is why I dislike the expectations we have for actors in films. It's some weird offshoot of "the show must go on" bullshit, as if human lives and health/safety, are somehow secondary to a fucking play, or episode of a tv show.

It's stupid, it's dangerous, and it's how a lot of good people, allow themselves to be used and abused in an industry, because they feel they "owe it to the fans." And it's just fucking sick.

 

[BrawlMan]

I find this sickening and disgusting. Because of this, I won't ever bother touching GoT. Overrated and over hyped any way.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

HBO: waterboards actress for the sake of realism
Also HBO:

 

[Chimpzy]

They'd better have offered her a sweet ass paycheck for doing that scene. Or used a stunt double. Who should've also been paid handsomely. Or maybe not actually waterboard someone and instead just imply it with some clever camera work and good sound design, and let people's imaginations run wild with how horrid it must be with all that horrible gurgling, gasping and trashing.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

I'm gonna need to take a film school hostage just so I can teach them what the word "acting" means

 

[Gordon_4]

I'm gonna need to take a film school hostage just so I can teach them what the word "acting" means

Shit like this is kind of like method acting. Look up the crazy shit Daniel Day Lewis does. Although this is method acting enforced by the director. Come to think of it, I wonder if the actress in the Expendables had to do a ten hour take when her waterboarding scene was done.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Shit like this is kind of like method acting. Look up the crazy shit Daniel Day Lewis does.

I am aware. They should also learn what acting means.

 

[Adam Jensen]

There was no need for this and therefore no real excuse.

 

[Trunkage]

Someone wanted to be Alfred Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick